Off the hook
by Nina-D-lux
Summary: A wild party? Alcohol? Bitchy ex-friends? Some back-room hook ups? some bad intentions? Why is Lo singing lady Gaga, and who's better at beer pong? Find out why this party was memorable for all the wrong reasons. FinXReef BroXLo and EmmaXTy humour fic
1. dude, i am so bored!

" Good morning and welcome to the dining room, I'm your waitress, Lo, and ill be getting your food or whatever…" Lo said, as enthusiastic as she could manage on a Friday morning. She had her ordering pad and paper in hand and a deadpan expression on her face. The whole sucking-up-to-daddy-to-get-out-of-work thing hadn't been going so well, and for now Lo had resigned herself to just trudge through each day (and taking any chance she could to slack off of course). Just don't expect her to be happy about it.

" Well looks like somebody forgot to take their jolly pills this morning" Ty took the menu that had been obscuring his face away, revealing a smug smile.

" I think I want a super deluxe, chocolate covered waffle with two scoops of ice cream, one vanilla and one strawberry, with chopped nuts and sliced bananas aaaaand whipped cream on top" George had tagged along too, always happy to visit his sister at work

"And make it snappy, wench"

"Ugh**, **_why_ cant you guys just order room service" Lo grumbled, casually hitting George lightly over the head with a menu for calling her a wench. George was about to try and strike back, but was cut off by an attractive blonde girl walking up to the three at their table.

" Hey Ty" She cooed in a chirpy, sugar coated way " Ive been looking for you everywhere this morning!" The girl flipped her hair and showed off her pearly white teeth in a full capacity smile. "Like, what're you doing here?" She gestured around the pirate themed restaurant "This place is like, sooo lame. I mean I know your dad owns it and all, but you should totally come down by the coffee shop for breakfast some time" She paused for another hair flip " That's where I get my breakfast". Gosh, Lo thought, don't be too subtle now…

Ty laughed and nodded "Yeah I know, have you seen the dancing whale in the lobby? Soo lame" He then gestured to Lo "But seeing my baby sister in that...lovely…uniform, is worth the tacky décor and sub-par food" He flashed a toothy grin at Lo, who stuck out her tongue in return.

The girl finally turned and noticed Lo's presence, having been too distracted by the fact Ty was wearing a tight singlet today "Oh, hey Lo…"

"….Hi Brittany" Lo hardly even tried to put any enthusiasm in her voice. Brittany Davis was the most popular senior at the local high school, and Ty's classmate slash devoted wannabe girlfriend. She was good looking (in a caked on makeup, fake tan kinda way) rich and totally spoilt. The only thing that marked her as different to Lo was the slutty reputation and major bitch streak. Lo had considered her a friend, once. It was around the point when Brittany almost completely ignored Lo, just to hang out with Ty, that Lo got sick of her. She'd come round the penthouse after school to watch TV, she'd ask if Ty wanted to watch too. They were going to a party, did Ty want to come? Lo would have a sleepover, and Brittany would totally end up in someone else's sleeping bag…

Lo didn't want friends who valued a boy's attention, especially her brothers, than their friendship.

" I don't see you round much anymore" The harpy spoke, a forced smile. Brittany hadn't taken to the rejection well.

" Ever since your party in fact…" She smiled and did a quick one-up on Lo's wench uniform, obviously enjoying the view. Seeing Lo taken down a peg was a past time of Brittany's. She flipped her hair again ( Lo counted this as the third time in the last minute) to re-focus on Ty.

"So your defs coming to my party tonight? Its gonna be epic, no doubt" That mega-watt smile had reappeared and her hand had snaked its way to Ty's shoulder. " Ide be so upset if you don't come" She fake pouted in what she obviously thought was a cute way. Lo rolled her eyes in a very un-subtly and George fake gagged in the background.

"Sure, wouldn't miss it" Ty smiled back. Ignoring his younger siblings in the background.

"Oh, and you can come too Lo, everyone's invited, so bring friends" and with that, she bounced off out of the dining room. Bleach blonde hair flying out behind her as it got flipped yet again.

"_And you can come too Lo~" _Lo mimicked in a high-pitched voice as soon as Brittany was out of earshot." Oh my god. It is _so_ obvious she's only throwing this party to upstage me!" Ty raised an eyebrow. " She was so jealous when everyone was raving about _my _party .She just has to try and out do me every time" Lo huffed and pulled out a chair, sitting down at the table. Seemingly not bothered with the fact she still had to work. "And how can you stand her pawing over you like that? Its gross" Ty smiled.

"I'm used to it" he said, some what proud of himself (not everyone was fawned over by girls like Ty was) "And c'mon, you could do with some loosening up. You've been so moody lately, what with the job and all. A party would do you some good,"

Lo took in her brothers words and gave it some thought. She had been pretty unpleasant recently, not that she'd admit he was right.

"Ugh, whatever, But you would be moody too if you had to do _this _all day" Lo gestured around her and then slumped back onto the table, arms folded. An Elderly gentleman, having his breakfast at the table across from them, tried to get her attention.

"Um, excuse me, miss? Could I please get…"

"In a minute!" Lo snapped.

"Yeah, it looks like your working pretty hard…" George piped in sarcastically as the old man scowled and muttered something about the loss of good old fashioned service nowdays.

"Besides, you could bring all the other groms with you. Brittany said everyone was invited"

Ty gave a sideways glance to his sister from above the top of the menu.

"Plus, I think that red head chick your always hanging with is into me"

Lo snapped her head up like a flash.

"Oh no, don't you dare! I wont let you anywhere near Emma. No way, no how. That's just wrong!"

"So she _is _into me?" Ty smiled questioningly.

"Well duh" George was bored and had started carving his name into the wooden table with a fork, but he felt it necessary to add this in. Rightfully so as well. I mean it wasn't as if Emma had been subtle with her affections…" She's been begging for it since she met you" said George, as he scratched out a square looking O.

"Please, she only likes you because she doesn't know what a _jerk_ you are" Lo snapped, annoyed at the smug grin he had plastered on his face. Lo did not know what girls saw in him. Emma, Brittany and countless other girls Lo had met ended up doe eyed towards her brother and frankly Lo was sick of it. Girls really had to look beyond the Ridgemount good looks for a change and see the Ty that Lo saw. Don't get me wrong, She loved her brother…deep, deep down...but that didn't excuse him from treating girls like crap (and stealing all her friends). Lo had seen many hearts broken by her brother, having not paid it that much attention before, however she drew the line when it came to her friends. So as long as she was around, Lo wouldn't let Ty get to Emma under any means.

"Whatever, you'd better get back to work before dad comes down to check on you" Ty handed Lo her order pad and pen, which he'd conveniently written down an order of scrambled eggs and bacon on.

"And don't forget my pancakes!" George added as he started on the G.

Lo started dragging herself back to the kitchen, in an even worse mood than when she'd started. Her brothers tended to have that effect on her.

" Seeya at the party then!" Ty called out chirpily, accompanied by a small wave.

"Ugh, not likely…"

Broseph, Fin and Reef were sprawled out on the sofas of the beach house deck. The sun had only begun to go down and they'd just come in from an after work surf session, and already they were bored out of their minds. The sun had only just begun to set and the sounds of crickets chirping and waves crashing against the shore could be heard. It was a gentle, calm atmosphere.

" I am so. Freakin'. Bored!" Reef threw his i-phone down fiercely onto the sofa beside him. There was only so long a boy like Reef could play consecutive games of solitaire (Having not won any) without snapping at some point. He flopped back down to lie on the couch, hands behind his head as he glared at the ceiling. Broseph let out a frustrated sigh.

"Dude, tell me about it"

A Large mosquito drifted lazily above the three teens, who watched it closely as it drifted closer and closer to the electric blue bug zapper that hung suspended from the porch ceiling. It dipped to the right, it fluttered back towards the stairs, it flew back towards them again and then back up towards the bug zapper. Three sets of eyes followed it intently until the little bloodsucker finally met its end, complete with the tiny electrocuting sound and then silence. Broseph turned to the other two after another good minute of that silence.

"Is it sad that _that_ was the most exciting thing I've seen all day?"

"Yep"

"Thought so"

This was followed by another few minutes of silence.

"There's not even anything good on TV" said Fin, as she half-heartedly flicked through a three-week-old gossip magazine, before throwing it down on the coffee table where her feet were resting. Reef quirked an eyebrow at Fin.

"We have a TV?"

Fin pointed to a small retro looking TV set that sat in the open window, so it could be viewed from the couches on the deck. With its crooked antennae and wood panel front, it could be considered a pretty good TV really, y'know, back in the 70's. Reef looked unimpressed.

'Pfft, if it doesn't get cable, its not a TV" and he went back to glaring at the ceiling, as if he could somehow intimidate it into making something fun happen. Just then Emma and Lo walked up the stairs of the deck, having finally gotten off their shift.

"Hey, what took you so long? It's been like two hours since work finished?" Broseph asked as Lo flopped down on the couch next to him, exhausted.

"It was awful. Some brat had his pirate themed 7th birthday party in the dining room today. Imagine thirty pint sized scream machines, high on sugar and soda, running around and hitting you in the shins with their little plastic pirate swords!" Lo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Broseph looked sympathetic and started to rub Lo's tense shoulders.

"Whoa, you need to chill girl"

"ugh, you have no idea how good that feels" Lo closed her eyes as she finally started to relax for what seemed the first time that day.

"Jealous much. Brosephs massages are _heaven" _

…. Everyone turned to look at Reef.

"…What? Cant a bro give another bro a neck massage without being judged? Jeez" Fin patted Reef gently on the head.

"Eh, they're just too close minded bro" Broseph smiled, un-phased as he continued to work on Lo.

"Settle down Leslie. No ones judging you" They so were. Reef sulked.

"Anywaaay…" Emma continued, after that awkward interlude "…it was more than awful. Two kids threw up, three food fights broke out and at least one kid had wet himself. We hoped the other puddles were just apple juice…" Grossed out faces all round. Emma sank into the couch next to fin.

"Hey, I can sympathise with you on the cleaning woes Alberta" Fin said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and giving a comforting one arm hug.

"Woooah, what's with the bummed out atmosphere 'round here?" Ripper and Lance announced their arrival as they rocked up to the deck.

"Just a hard day at work is all" Emma explained.

"That and we're totally bored!" Reef complained loudly for what seemed like the twelfth time in the last hour. Ripper smiled.

"Well then, I think I might have some news that could help solve both of those problems" He sat himself down on the arm of the couch nearest to Reefs feet.

"Me and Lance have been hearin' about this party a locals having tonight up at her dads mansion while he's out of town. From what I've heard its gonna' be a rager"

Lo's eyes snapped open.

"Yeah everyone's talking about it, its open house. It'll be off the hook!" Reefs eyes lit up as lance spoke.

"Oh I am _so _there!" Reef sat up and pumped his fists in the air. Glaring at that ceiling for so long had payed off. E looked at Fin, seeing if she was keen to go. She shrugged and smiled.

"Yeah, why not, beats anything we could do around here"

"True that" Broseph nodded, still attached to a silent Lo's shoulders.

'Wait so who's party is it exactly?" Emma piped up, eager but cautious, like the good girl she was. She didn't want to rock up to a party and then find out they weren't _actually_ invited. Major embarrassment factor.

Lance and Ripper were about to reply, but were cut off before they could get a word out.

"_Brittany. Davis…" _The group stared as Lo managed to spit out the name through gritted teeth. No. No, no, no, no, no! Lo could see it all in her head. Ty would be after poor unsuspecting Emma, now that he'd figured out she liked him, while that harpy would be clawing all over Ty for his attention, which is gross to watch anyway and would only upset Emma aswell…and as if Lo wanted to give that harpy the impression that she even _wanted_ to go to her stupid, lame, dumb party…

Broseph cautiously took his hands off Lo and rippers eyes widened slightly. She looked ready to slap the next thing that moved. Lance coughed to break the awkward silence.

"Uh, so. You heard about it already?"

"Yeah, Ty told me about this morning" As soon as the words came out of her mouth Lo could've slapped her self.

"Wait, Tys going!"

Lo grimaced at the sound of her friends over excited voice.

"Yeeeah…" Lo started cautiously. "But seriously Emma…" Lo would've continued to explain why going to this party was _not_ a good idea, but she wasn't listening anymore.

"Im going!"

"So am I!" Reef all but yelled

"What the hell" Fin shrugged as she got up.

"Haven't been to a good party in awhile bro"

"That's the spirit groms!"

Everyone was eagerly heading inside to get ready when...

" HOLD IT!" everyone froze and swerved around to face a fuming Lo, who had jumped to her feet with hands on her hips. She fixed her gaze on Lance and Ripper, eyes narrowing. There eyes widened, taken back a bit by the usually calm girls outburst. Lo quickly got herself under control, she folded her arms and adopted what she hoped was a non-chalant tone. "I mean, what makes you so sure this parties gonna' be 'off the hook'? It's probably all hype anyway. I bet we'll get there and you'll want to leave after half an hour its that lame".

Reef rolled his eyes at the hold up. He honestly didn't care _what_ the party was going to be like. Anything would be more exciting than what he could do here. Plus, he needed to get started on his hair soon if he wanted to look good for fin…I mean, for the party. Only for the party. "Well I guess were gonna have to find out if its lame or not when we get there then!".

"Yeah come on Lo" fin spoke up from next to reef " There's no harm in just checking it out right?" Lo gritted her teeth in frustration thinking that, yeah, there could be some _major _harm done at this party.

"I bet the music will be lame..." Lo started, weakly.

"I heard there's gonna be a DJ"

" Well the food will probably suck..."

"She's hired a catering company, buffet and all"

"…As if anybody will actually show up"

"Friend just texted me, he's already there and the place is already packed"

"godammnit!" All of Lo's half assed reasons not to go were quickly shot down by a quick-tongued Lance.

"Wait, so it's already started!" Reef grabbed the group's attention away from Lo and Lances arguing, "What are we waiting for? It's settled, were going!" A cheer went up as the group rushed upstairs to get ready. Lo didn't move as she pouted behind the rest of the group. She was Lauren Ridgemount, since when did people disagree with her? Broseph, who had been heading along with the others, decided to hang back.

"wassup!" He said lightly, trying to break the mood a bit. He slung his arm loosely over her shoulders. "I dunno the _real_ reason you don't want to go out tonight-" Lo turned to look up at him, surprised he could see through her so well. "-and I don't mean any offence by this, but it seems to me like you could do with a good night out lately, ay?" Lo groaned inwardly, it was bad when two people told you too loosen up in one day. She really hoped she hadn't been _that_ much of a pain all week. Brospeh smiled down her "Besides, wouldn't it be nice to go to a party where somebody else gets in trouble in the morning?" He added playfully. This got him a small slap on the arm from Lo, but she couldn't help the smile that crept up onto her face " hey! There we go, that wasn't too hard now was it?" He squeezed her around the shoulders affectionately before dropping his arm "Now go on upstairs, I know how long it takes you girls to get ready" Lo smiled and started up the stairs to her room. About half way up she paused and looked back.

"Hey Broseph?"

"yeah?"

"thanks"

"Anytime girl" Broseph smiled back as he watched her climb the rest of the stairs.


	2. dude, are you ready yet?

**A/N: Hey guys! So I didn't really say anything about the story in the first chapter, but don't worry! I have this all planned out. I have a total draft outline of what's going to happen, and the plot has been figured out WAY in advanced. I'm determined to finish this story, so hopefully you'll stick around!**

**I may have made Ty and little bit of a jerk (okay, maybe a big jerk) in this fic, so sorry and Ty/Emma fans! (I don't dislike the couple, its all for plots sake!) and expect some Fin/Reef and some Lo/Broseph (I don't know why, this couple just works for me. Just roll with it). Anyway, hope you enjoy it and leave a review if you're feeling nice!**

**Disclaimer: Surprisingly, I don't own stoked or any of its characters.**

Lo joined Fin and Emma in their room, having to step over piles of clothing that had already been rejected by the two, who were digging through the wardrobe and drawers. Tops, skirts, jeans and dresses lay over every available inch of space, along with a few pairs of shoes. Lo narrowly avoided a yellow cami that was chucked roughly past her as she sat down on her bed, taking out her makeup case from the draw of her nightstand.

"Ugh, I have nothing cute to wear!" Emma groaned dramatically as she flopped down to the floor, having inspected almost every item of clothing she owns. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a purple dress that had been discarded under her bed, yes! That would be perfect. She leant over and picked it up. It was a bit crinkly but she could rush down to the laundry and iron it-…Emma's train of thought was broken as she caught a whiff of something nasty. She put the dress up to her nose and breathed in. Oh. Okay, that option was out then…she made a mental note to do her laundry tomorrow.

'So what exactly is the dress code for this thing, Lo?" Fin asked as she brushed a comb roughly through her hair, silently wishing it was a casual jeans and T-shirt type of party. Fin hated getting "dressed up" to go out, she really wasn't that type of girl. Lo sat cross-legged on her bed, holding a small compact mirror up to her face and delicately applying her mascara, all of her other makeup spread around her as if it had been dumped out roughly.

" Well, knowing Brittany and her crew, they're gonna get dressed up. Mini dresses and heels basically" Lo screwed the top back on her mascara and went to grab her blusher "That's what I'll be wearing anyway" She shrugged. Fin cursed under her breath, shoving the old shorts and singlet she'd been planning to wear back into the drawer.

"Oh Lo, can I pleeease, please, please, please, please borrow a dress for tonight!" Emma clapped her hands together as if to beg. It was of the utmost importance that she looked hot tonight. I mean how many other parties would she be going to where Ty would be there? (Probably a lot, but hey, right now Emma would sell her soul if the devil happened to offer her a little black dress in exchange). "Since you have such good taste and all…" A little bit of wheedling couldn't hurt either. Of course Lo was a sucker for compliments and she gladly gave Emma permission to rifle through her large collection of expensive dresses. Oh, and because they were friends and all.

"Hey, could I grab one of those too?" Fin asked sheepishly.

"Of course, just don't take that white one" Lo pointed to a white strapless mini that was slung over the end of her bed "That's the one I'm wearing tonight"

Emma picked the dress up to look at it. There wasn't much to look at. It was a reeeally small mini…

Fin wolf whistled "Woooah, who's attention you trying to grab with _that?_" She laughed. Lo just smiled cheekily.

"Everyone's of course" She said, only half joking. Honestly, there_ was _someone Lo had in mind, she just didn't feel like mentioning it to the girls at the moment.

"Oooooh! This one is soooo cute!" Emma squealed as she pulled out a blue dress from Lo's vast collection. Just then, something in Lo's brain clicked. Lo knew Ty would be after Emma tonight, now that he knew she was head-over-heels for him, and she knew Emma wouldn't exactly hate _that_ attention (Understatement of the year), but what if Emma happened to be wearing a particularly heinous dress? Something ridiculously kook-like, or even worse, one that made her look fat. Did Lo even own such a dress? As she pondered Lo felt a huge twang of guilt. Purposely wanted her friend to look bad in front of her crush was a pretty low thing to do (a pretty "Lo" thing to do, get it?…never mind.) and was more like something Brittany would do. The Lo imagined her brother, and what his intentions might be with her friend…. no. This was for the greater good. Lo totally had Emma's best interests at heart. She had to do this.

"Hey Emma, what about this one?" Lo said as she pulled out a lime green halter dress. Seriously, no joke, this was possibly the greenest dress this side of Canada. It takes a minute for yours eyes to adjust to the brightness when looking at it. It could go into the Guinness book of world records for "Greenest dress ever made", I wouldn't be surprised if it glowed in the dark.

I'll stop now.

'Daddy' had gotten Lo the dress as a 'well done for getting a C+ in school' celebration present, and was the only piece of clothing Mr Ridgemount had ever bought his daughter without his wife's supervision (and as you can see, this was for good reason). Lo had never worn it out, or in, or anywhere. The only time she wore it was to skip into Daddy's office to wheedle some money out of him, it was the perfect dress to suck up to him with. 'Yeah daddy, its my favourite dress, just because it's a gift from the sweeeeeeetest daddy in the world!" Lo honestly had no shame sometimes.

Fin raised her eyebrow at it, but Emma let out an even louder squeal than before and immediately dropped the blue dress to the floor, rejected.

"Ohmigod! I love it, green is my colour!"

"…What?" Lo could barely blink before the dress was snatched out of her hands and shimmied into by Emma. Lo could only watch as her plan totally backfired on her. Green really was Emma's colour, it clashed brilliantly with her red hair and suited her slender figure. Emma did a quick twirl in front of the mirror, looking herself up and down before tackling Lo in hug.

"Thanks so much Lo! Your such a good friend!"

Godammnit, Lo cursed herself. Even when she deliberately tried to commit a crime against fashion, somehow it worked. She was just too brilliant sometimes. She then turned her attention to Fin, who had gotten herself into a figure hugging little black number.

"And you said I was the one looking for attention?"

Fin blushed and tugged at the hem of the short dress "Lo, do you own any party dresses that can cover more than _just_ my ass" Lo shrugged.

"Its not my fault you have longer legs than me" Lo started changing into her own dress "Besides, you look way hot in it, so I don't see what the deal is" Fin just stared into the mirror again. It did make her legs look nice…super long and tanned of course, she smirked, Reef would so love to see her in this. Wait, NO! As if she wanted him to be drooling over her! His stupid kook face all slack-jawed and gaping…just…no! Not even a little!

"Reef would so love to see her in that" Fin jerked her head around as Emma spoke, was this girl in her head!

"Oh totall-*smack*Owww!" Lo rubbed the spot on her head where Fins shoe had collided with it.

"Ugh, rude!"

Fin blushed "Yeah well zip it then!" She countered defensively " I don't want _Reef_, of all people, staring me up all night!"

"Because he totally doesn't do that already-AAAH!" Emma squealed and ducked as another three shoes were flung at her and narrowly missed. Emma and Lo were on the floor, falling over each other laughing, as Fin blushed even harder.

Still, she decided to wear the dress anyway (Because she decided she liked it! It made her look good. A girl wants to look nice when she goes out y'know. Reef had nothing to do with it…. so shuttup!)

Meanwhile in the bathroom, the guys were getting themselves groomed for the party. Well Reef was anyway.

"So you think I should go classic Reef-style hair, or maybe something edgier, like a flicked off side fringe or something! Betties are hot for that look lately, right?" Reef stared himself down in the vanity mirror in the bathroom, running his fingers through his hair, styling it this way and that. He had about 6 different jars of hair gel at the ready. Broseph was just chilling, sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

"Bro your right, I think betties _are _going for that look-" he started off positively "-on themselves" he ended, deadpan. "Just stick with classic reef" Reef sulked a little bit before grabbing a handful of hair gel.

"Aren't you gonna' get ready for the party?"

"Already done" he flicked his blond mop "why fix what aint broken brah?"

Just then Lance and Ripper barged in "Oi, where gonna' be taking my jeep to the party" Ripper pointed a menacing finger towards Reef "So don't be too long faffing about your hair, were leaving in 5 minutes to go get the drinks, and when we come back you better be ready to leave" Reef looked panicked and grabbed another handful of hair gel, slathering it through his hair frantically. He needed to look good for Fin, and he only had 10 minutes to sexify himself! Who knows how many other hot surfer guys would be at this party, in other words, competition! He had to be at the top of his game tonight. Lance and Ripper smirked "words to the wise grom, Betties hate a guy when he's too desperate" Ripper said "Just play it cool" He jerked his thumb over to Lance " take some pointers from Lance, he's gonna be going after Lo tonight"

Well that certainly grabbed the groms attention. Reef, who'd only half been listening even if the speech was directed at him (I mean he had his hair to worry about! Reefs hair _always_ took precedence in _any _situation) but at this news his head snapped right towards Lance.

"Wait, so you like Lo? I didn't even know you two talked!"

"Nah, we don't" Lance nodded "but its not as if I like her"

"But you just said-"

"Dude" Broseph interrupted "Think about it"

Reef cocked his head to the side "soo...you want to get with Lo…but you don't actually like her…why would you go out with a Betty you didn't like?" Ripper rolled his eyes.

"'Going out with' is different to 'getting with' mate"

"Oooooohhhh! I get it!" Reefs face lit up before quickly turning more serious "Oh...I get it" Quickly realizing that Lance, to put it bluntly, was one of _those_ jerks. Brosephs usually chill expression had turned itself into a concerned frown.

"Why would you even go after Lo anyway?"

Lance just shrugged "Well, the red-heads too goody-goody, the blonde chicks this guys-" he gestured to Reef ("Hey! Her names Fin!") "-And Kelly...she scares me" He folded his arms "So the most obvious choice is to go after Lo" it was said so matter-of-factly all the guys could do was stare. This was the only time they'd ever seen Lance put his 3 (or less) brain cells into use. And that was only so he could score with a chick. It really spoke to his character.

Not.

"Yeah, and not to mention she's a total party girl. Gets trashed at every party she goes too" Ripper smirked "-and there's rumours going around she's easy too" Reef gasped louder than a middle aged woman watching 'days of their lives'. Broseph just frowned.

"Are you saying Lo's a party slut?" Reef said, almost a whisper. As if he thought Lo herself would hear it and promptly come over and slap him. I mean the guys, himself and Broseph, didn't think she was like that, but then again they hadn't known her since the start of the summer, who knows what she got up before she'd been forced to work with them…

"Dude, I cant believe that" Brosephs face was stoic and his voice was firm as he stood up to face Lance. Reef looked anxiously at his friend, finally distracted from his hair for more than a second. It was too different from the usual chillax Brospeh he was used to seeing. Lance laughed.

"Hey, chill out" he put his hands up and backed off towards the door with ripper "I mean if your that upset, I could let you have a go at her after I'm done!" The two practically fell out the door laughing as they quickly left, Reef and Broseph could hear them high-fiving as they went down the hallway.

There was an awkward silence left in the bathroom. Reef didn't know what to say to the still quietly fuming Broseph. I mean Reef himself was pretty mad over the diss to his friend, coupled with the fact that Lance was a total jerk, but he didn't think Broseph would get this mad over it. The maddest he'd seen his friend was when they stopped airing the TV commercial with the bikini babe selling Cheezits on the beach. And that was pretty mad.

Broseph sighed, "C'mon dude, lets just go wait in the car" he moved towards the door, a calm face reappearing.

"But…my hair...I'm not-" Reef could've continued whining about how there were still a few stray hairs who hadn't been cemented together yet, but Brospeh had already headed out the door and down the stairs.

"Hey, wait up!"

Reef quickly followed…but not without grabbing a tub of hairgel on his way out.

"So you have everything?"

"Yup"

"Phone?"

"Check"

" Spare cash?"

"Only $15, but check"

"Lip gloss?"

"You know I don't wear that stuff"

"Oh, well I have two just in case"

"What? In _that_ tiny purse?"

"Hey, this is a designer Fendi, don't diss the couture!"

Emma rolled her eyes as Lo and Fin bickered down the stairs. Sometimes the clash of tomboy VS glamour queen was too funny. She stumbled slightly on the stairs, but quickly caught herself on the banister.

"You all right their Alberta?"

"Oh yeah I'm fine" She laughed it off "Just a quick mishap with the heels". Emma looked down at the black stilettos she had on " I haven't worn heels in so long, I'm so out of practise". She trod more carefully until she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Speaking of shoes-" Lo said, spinning around on her heel to face Fin "-where are yours?" she pointed downwards to Fins unclad toes.

"Don't worry, I just had my shoes down here is all" Fin walked over to the back of the couch, Lo and Emma watching her, and slipped on a pair of dirty old white flip flops. She beamed at them and wriggled her toes "okay, all ready now".

There was a deafening silence.

"Yeah, you're not wearing those"

"What? Why not! They're comfortable"

"They may be comfortable, but that doesn't stop them from being heinous!"

"Yeah Fin" Emma cut in, before Lo went postal from the sight of the trashed shoes " It's a nice party, wear some nice heels!" Fin looked a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah, well, you see…about the whole…heel thing…"

As Fin Fidgeted, Emma quickly cottoned on.

"Oh!You can't walk in heels, can you Fin?" Emma smiled deviously as Fin blushed.

"So! I mean it's not a big deal. I've just never bothered to learn! I'm tall enough anyway-" 

"No excuses!" Lo all but shouted. She could not have one of her entourag- I mean, friends, show up to this party looking less than drop dead sexy, and flip flops defiantly detracted from the sexy. She needed to completely upstage Brittany and her friends at her own party, and looking better than them was all part of it! Lo clapped her hands together "Emma, go fetch me some peep toe black pumps from my wardrobe, stat!"

Lo snapped her head back to Fin, who looked more than a bit scared.

"Your going to wear heels, wether you like it or not!"

This could only lead to good things.

Reef sighed as he stared at his relection in the jeeps rear-view mirror. He turned to Broseph, who was sitting in the drivers seat next to him. "Have I over done it with the product?" Broseph leant over and flicked Reefs ultra-gelled up hair with his finger. It didn't move.

"Dude, that actually hurt a little bit" Broseph rubbed his finger as Reef flopped his head down onto the dashboard.

"Now I'll never get to feel Fins sweet delicate hand brush through my hair as were just about to-…uh… I mean, damn! Now what are my chances of scoring a hook up tonight huh? Haha…ha." Broseph just raised an eyebrow. Reef coughed.

" So, anyway, what was that back there? In the bathroom I mean" Reef didn't just bring this up to change the subject from his awkward fantasies, he was pretty worried about it aswell "I don't think I've seen you get that…un-chill" Reef was no Dr Phil when it came to his friends problems, but his heart was in the right place.

"Yeah, sorry to get all serious on you brah, its just I cant stand it when someone disses out a friend y'know?" He folded his arms behind is head and leant back into the seat of the car. "How would you feel if someone said that about Fin?"

Reef frowned "What! Lance is after Fin now too! Has the man no shame!"

"…. No dude"

"Oh, …'Kay then" Reef settled back into his seat, having already been in the process of jumping over the jeep door to go and bear tackle Lance to the ground and beat him senseless with his own surfboard. Totally not an over reaction. "Yeah, I guess I see what your sayin'" He looked over at Broseph "So, what? Are you planning on keeping your on Lo the whole night? To make sure Lance doesn't get anywhere near her. Or any other guys for that matter" Reef smiled "I mean Fin may be the _ultimate_ babe, but Lo's nothing to frown at, if you know what I mean"

Just at that moment, Lo and Emma has stepped out the front door. The guys just stared as Lo sauntered down the wooden porch steps, that tight mini dress and towering heels having just the effect they were meant too. Broseph returned Reefs smile right then. Broseph knew exactly what he meant.

Then the guys dragged their eyes over to Emma "Whoa, that's green!" Reef blurted out suddenly. He couldn't stop himself; this was a green that rivalled Kermit, this was the green that…wait, I've already done this joke. Moving on.

Emma stopped for a minute "Is it _too_ green? Should I go change?" This girl was way too nervous over seeing Ty tonight. Bless. Reef quickly tried to calm her down.

"No, no, no! It looks good! Just…striking, is all." And he wasn't lying, it really did look good on her "We couldn't lose you in a crowd, that's for sure!" Broseph smiled at her reassuringly.

"Ten outta ten girl," He said as he flashed a thumbs up.

Emma smiled again "Thanks guys" She slid into the backseat of the jeep next to Lo, who had already slipped in to snatch a window seat.

"Okay. Ew. Ripper obviously doesn't clean his car often enough" She said, picking up a discarded McDonalds take out bag and throwing it over the side of the jeep. Better it ruin the environment than her designer shoes.

"Hey, so, where's Fin?" Reef piped up, turning around in his chair to face the two girls. "She's still coming right?" He didn't use up half his hair gel stash, just for Fin not to show up!

"Calm down lover boy, she's coming" Lo smiled and pointed back to the house. Just as Reef whipped his head around the front door opened. Oh yeah, time to check out Fin. He crossed his fingers and prayed she was wearing as mini a dress as the other two girls. She was gonna look so sexy, and Reef could not wait!

Turns out this was a half-truth.

Fin _was _wearing a very mini dress ("Yes!") but sexy? Well, if you consider a girl wobbling slowly down a set of steps while clutching the hand railing for dear life sexy…then yeah, Fin was looking sexy. Reefs face fell, his anticipation dulling.

But that was before he started bursting out laughing.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my god!" He clutched his sides and breathed in deeply before collapsing onto the seat again in gleeful agony " Yeah Fin!"

"Shut it _Leslie_!" Fin hissed out as she tried to stand up straight as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She put her hands on her hips and set a determined look on her face. She could do this. If she could balance herself on a board in the middle of the ocean, she could manage on a pair of heels! Fin was about to take one big confident step forward…when she slipped.

Dammnit.

'HA!Ahahahaha!Haha!HA!HA!" By now the others had started to crack up aswell, but no doubt Reef was still laughing the loudest out of any of them.

"I said shut it!" Reef pulled herself up and, precariously, stomped over to the jeep and slammed the door shut as she got in. Reef slowly stated to control himself, tears in the corners of his eyes. He turned around in his seat to face the back, his face only a foot away from Fins. "Lookin' good there betty" and he smiled a big toothy grin. Fin just scowled back in return. "That's rich coming from a guy with half of Canada's hair gel supply packed onto his head!"

Oh snap

Reef turned back in his seat and sunk down, folding his arms as everyone turned and started laughing at him. "When are Lance and Ripper getting here..." He mumbled sulkily.

"Hey, you groms should just be happy were willing to buy alcohol for all of ya'" An Australian accent broke up the laughter as the five turned to see Lance and Ripper walking back towards the jeep, there arms laden with six packs and bottle cases.

"And in case you haven't noticed-" Ripper continued as he passed the cases of aforementioned alcohol to the girls in the back seat "there are five seats in the jeep, and there are seven of us" He was right, the groms really hadn't given it much thought. "So unless someone wants to ride in the trunk" (Maybe it was just his imagination, but Reef swore Ripper was looking at him when he said that) "Two of yous' will have to double up".

"I'll double with Fin!" Reef almost shouted as he dashed from the front passengers seat, to clambering on top of Fin in the back and clipping up the seat belt.

"Hey, I didn't agree to this!" Fin winced as Reefs bulky frame was pressing down on top of her.

Now that's an awkward sentence.

"Mate" Ripper stared at Reef "Wouldn't it make more sense if Fin sat on _your_ lap?"

Emma and Lo exchanged knowing glances "You know if that were to happen, me and Lo would have no choice but to make absolutely tasteless boner jokes the whole ride, right?" Fins eyes widened.

"I'm fine. This is fine. He's not …that heavy" Fin wondered how far away this party was. She already felt her legs going dead. Reef however, looked pretty happy with himself.

" So Lo" Lance started as he leant over the jeep door where Lo was sitting "Another two people need to double up so, if you wanted to, you and m-"

"Emma" Broseph cut Lance off before he could finish "You and Emma could double up" Lo looked surprise at Brosephs reaction, but she shrugged. Lance just glared while Brospeh flashed him a winning grin.

"scuze' me Emma" Emma let out an 'oof!' as Lo plonked herself down on her lap. Had anyone actually asked her if she didn't mind? Oh well, she thought, Lo was her friend after all. A deceptively heavy friend, maybe it was all the hair spray and acrylic nails that weighed her down? She pondered as Lo clipped them in with the seatbelt and Broseph moved from the front to sit next to them. Lance had apparently boycotted the front seat, while ripper took the drivers side.

Ripper put the keys into the ignition and the old jeep started up.

"So who's ready to party?"


	3. Dude, we need a dog!

**Disclaimer: Surprisingly , I don't own stoked or any of its characters.**

"_-hit me baby one more ti-"_

"Skip it"

"_-my pa-pa-pa poker fa-"_

"Skip it"

"_-runnin' out your mouth with your blah blah bla-"_

"Skip it"

"_-can we pretend airplanes in the nigh sky are like shoo-"_

"Oh god, skip it!"

"Hey, I like that song…"

"Emma, please, we need a _party_ song, to get us in the mood for tonight"

The jeep was speeding along the surfers' paradise coastline, with Broseph leaning from the backseat to fiddle with the radio dial, as per Lo's instructions. Emma had been getting impatient, having Lo sit on top of her _and_ dictate the radio for the last ten minutes was getting pretty annoying. Not that she would say anything. I mean any minute they'll be arriving at the party, in other words, seeing Ty! Emma could hold out for another few irritating minutes, she reasoned.

Reef and Fin had been staying quiet for most of the journey, which was surprising. Fins was sitting ridgidly, a mixture of pain, from the big old kook currently squashing her lap, and a bit of a blush were evident on her face (also curtesy of the big old kook currently squashing her lap). Reef, however, was totally enjoying him self. Out of no-where there was a slight buzzing sound and Reef felt a vibration coming from under him.

"Woah! Woah! Back up. What are you doing to my ass?" Reef jumped up off of Fin, as far as the seat belt would allow him. Fin slapped him on the back as she reached into the small pocket of her dress.

"Calm down you sick minded kook! It's just my phone" She grabbed out her still ringing I-phone and looked down at the caller ID displayed on the screen.

Oh crap

"Who is it?" Lo asked casually, having decided eventually on playing the Lady Gaga song.

Fin looked panicked, having still not picked up the call "Its Johnny!"

The groms, Lance and Ripper included, froze. Eyes wide, as they all made that awkward face that happens when you suck air through gritted teeth.

They'd forgotten to tell Johnny about the party.

Oh crap was right.

At that exact moment, back at the beach shack, Johnny took the phone away from his ear, having got the answering machine. He'd been kept back late after work having to deal with some particularly unhappy customers (He'd have to talk to Broseph in the morning about that. Getting the suitcases of a catholic nun and a hardcore porn star mixed up had consequences). But of course, when he got home, nobody else was there. Everyone's surfboards were still neatly stacked against the wall, so they weren't out for a late night surf sesh. That, and the fact that Rippers Jeep was gone, made him think something was up. They wouldn't have gone out without him though.

Right?

He tried calling again.

And another time.

Then a time after that.

As well as a fourth time.

Goddamnit. He sighed as he pressed the end call button once again, having once again ended up on the answering machine. He secretly hoped they'd all been kidnapped and were being held hostage without access to their phone, and that this was the reason they weren't here and couldn't answer his calls. Because that would be a far better scenario than them not inviting him out to a party or something.

Ok, back to the groms. Who were currently cranking up the volume of the radio, so Lady Gaga could successfully drown out the incessant buzzing of Fins phone. They'd decided to ignore it. Yes they felt bad! But this whole thing had been so spur of the moment, so they didn't even have time to think of Johnny wanting to come! I mean Emma was busy thinking of Ty, Reefs mind was focused on his hair…these excuses didn't make them feel better about it, so the next best thing was to just ignore it for now, and deal with it the morning. Perfect. How mad would he be right?

The shame spiral that circled the entire jeep quickly disappeared as Ripper turned a corner and pulled up in front of a grand, three storey, mansion. It was right across from the beach, with only the narrow road separating the front lawn from the white sand. There was a mess of other cars, all parked haphazardly, wherever there was room. People had spilled out of the house and a few partygoers sat on the front porch. Some waiting out for their friends, some people on cell-phones, small groups of girls squealing about how cute their friends outfits were, etcetera.

Ripper pulled the jeep up to the front of the house, flipping off the radio, but keeping the engine running. "You guys get out here, I've gotta' go find someplace to park". Fin practically threw Reef off of her as she yanked open the door and hurriedly stepped out. She faltered a bit on the heels, putting out her hands to balance herself, but luckily she didn't stack it again.

"Easy there Finnegan, there's a lot more people around to witness any future face-plants" Reef offered Fin his hand as he slid out of the car. Fin just looked at him, deadpan. As if he could sucker her into holding his hand all night, pfft, what a cheap trick that was. Fin whipped her head around and took a few steps forward. Wait, scratch that, _tried, _to take a few steps forward. On about the third time her foot hit the ground, her ankle jolted suddenly to the right and she went tumbling straight towards the ground.

That is, until a strong set of arms reached out and caught her, of course.

Reef pulled Fin back up to her feet and looked into her eyes, a small smirk on his lips "See what I mean?" Fins face was flustered, I mean she had almost collided with solid pavement, a girl needed time to compose herself. She blushed, as Reef looked down at her, having not let go yet with an arm still wrapped around her waist. Fin pulled away at last and brushed some stray hair from her face. She looked around hesitantly, trying to ignore the silent squealing fits Lo and Emma were having in the background, and then stuck out her hand.

"Fine! But this is _only_ because face-planting it in front of an entire party is just a _little_ more embarrassing than being mistaken for your girlfriend!" Reef smiled as he took her hand, noticing she still had that blush on her face as they walked up the garden path towards the front door.

Fin quickly shot a glare behind her at Emma and Lo, who were following behind them. They were trying desperately to contain their girlish squeals but couldn't hide the huge Cheshire cat grins they had plastered all over there faces. I mean did Fin _really_ think they'd believe she wasn't into Reef? The letters were practically spelt out across her forehead. "I-heart-kook".

The rest of the group made it up to the door in one piece, but not before a burly looking guy, with dreadlocks and a black t-shirt, stepped in front of the door and out his hands. "Woah, wait a minute there, you guys on the list?" .The groms noticed another, equally massive and intimidating, guy standing close by who held a clipboard with a few pages worth of names.

"What? We heard it was open house!" Lance stepped up, confusion on his face. Emma looked panicked and the others looked more than a little peeved. Had Lance and Ripper gotten it wrong and they'd come out all this way for nothing?

"Well it was-" The second 'bouncer' with the clipboard started talking "-but it was changed last minute. We heard about all the people coming, way more than we anticipated" He shrugged "So Brittany made a list of the people she _actually_ wants coming, and the rest-" He gave them a smug grin "-just have to go home" and with that, the two guys shut the door in the speechless groms face.

"Dude! What the hell!" Reef looked on the verge of throwing a major tantrum "who changes it from open house to 'exclusive' at the last minute!" He practically yelled back at the closed door. The groms all had similar pissed off expressions.

"A bitch like Brittany Davis, that's who!" Lo joined in complaining with Reef as the groms stomped there way back down the garden path. Now that they took notice, a lot of the people who had been standing around on the lawn on their phones, looked like they were in the same predicament, probably calling and telling other friends not to bother, or calling for a lift home.

" I wore these damn heels for nothing!" Fin whined.

"And I've already blown $70 on alcohol!" Lance held up the cases of drinks.

"Dude, I _just _got myself in the party mood, I cant just go back home and sleep now" Broseph sat down on the curb on the edge of the road, running a hand through his fro. Emma joined him, taking out her cell from her bag.

"Ill just call Ripper and tell him to bring the car back around" She was probably the least angry over the whole thing, and more just upset. She'd found the perfect dress, she was going to see Ty, make him see her, and was generally planning on having one hell of a night. But of course, the higher your expectations the harder they fall. She was just scrolling through her phone contacts before the cell was snatched out of her hand.

"Now wait just a minute!" Emma blinked up at Lo as the spoilt princess held her phone out of reach, a determined look on her face. Everyone stopped complaining for a second to stare at Lo. Lo was good at making a scene " You guys were so excited for this party and then when one little obstacle pops up, you decide to just quit and go home!" Lo put her hands on her hips, channelling Mr Ridgemount as she spoke " You didn't let a bad day at work stop you! You didn't let _me_ stop you!" She pointed at Fin, who jerked backwards, eyes wide "You didn't let your inability to walk in heels stop you!" She then turned on Reef, who looked even more scared than Fin " Didn't you waste half your Hair gel stash just for this party!" the next target was Emma " and if you have such a _massive_ crush on my brother, I would _think_ you'd be a bit more determined to get into this party!" Lo folded her arms and glared at the rest of the group, not in a mean way, more like a totally-scary-and-intimidating-drill-sergeant kinda way (The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say). The group just exchanged nervous glances with each other, each waiting for the other to speak.

Fin finally plucked up the courage. "Um…Lo? Don't get me wrong, but…weren't you the one who didn't want us to come to this party in the first place?" Although Reef was still holding her hand, he stepped away slightly from Fin, just in case Lo got violent (which didn't seem totally out of the question right now).

It was true, Lo hadn't wanted to go to this party, as you guys would know. But now that Brittany had specifically stated that she was no longer even invited to this party, Lo _had_ to come now, just to spite that evil harpy! How dare she exclude Lo Ridgemount! Nobody told Lo Ridgemount to leave their party. No one. She was the party queen! So yes, Lo was now completely focused on crashing this party…. in the name of honour! (That and she totally looked hot in this dress and it would be a waste not to show it off… but mostly the honour thing)

However melodramatic that speech may have been, it seemed to have had an effect. Reef started looking a little less scared, and started getting the same look in his eye that Lo had.

"Lo's right! We can't just go home now!"

"And I'm not going though another car ride home with this kook on my lap either!" Fin joined in "So I'm staying too!"

Broseph got up and smiled, high-fiving Lo "Way to go Ridgemount! No doubt you're the party queen!". Lo wasn't lieing when she said she had that title. Lance pumped his fist in the air.

"Parties back on! Yeah!"

The last person to not speak up yet was Emma, who was still sitting on the curb looking unsure. Yeah she wanted to go to the party as badly as the others, if not more so! But were they remembering the scary looking 'bouncers' Brittany had at the front door? Was she the only one intimidated by bulging muscles and a glare that could make a kitten cry? Maybe she was just the only one who hadn't conveniently forgotten about them.

Lo held out her hand "Come on girl" Lo had changed her tone from before, her calm voice back in check. "Don't quit on us, you know our crazy schemes always turn out for the best in the end!" Emma looked at Lo's out stretched hand, anxious wether to take it or not. Then she looked at all her friends' faces, silently urging her to come with them.

"It wouldn't be the ultimate party without you Emma" Lo smiled down at her friend. Emma let out a sigh, turning away from the group. The groms hearts fell for a moment. It looked like goody-two-shoes Emma wasn't willing to take the risk…

That is until she turned back to them with a huge mega-watt smile back on her face.

"I had you there for a second didn't I?"

Lo pulled her best friend into a sidesplitting hug, squealing as she did so. The others whooped and cheered around the two ("Yeah Alberta!" "We knew you'd come around!"), Lance patted her on the back and Broseph ruffled her hair. Emma smiled cheekily as she pulled away from Lo, grabbing her phone back while she was at it.

Okay, now it was just a matter of the groms coming up with a plan to get past the bouncers and inside that party.

"Any ideas?" Lo asked. She had been the one to deliver the inspiring speech after all. So she didn't feel like she should have to come up with any type of plan. Her contribution had already been made.

There was a dead silence, besides the hum of the party behind them and a few awkward sounding crickets.

"I've got it!" Reef announced suddenly "We need a distraction" He let go of Fins hand and got the group into a close huddle, stage whispering as if he thought the bouncers all the way back at the house would hear his master plan "First, we need a girl to lure the bouncers back outside!" He pointed to Emma "You start crying, create some sympathy! Tell them a sob story about how you were out walking your dog-"

"She was walking her dog in a cocktail dress? I don't think they'll belie-"

"Minor details!" Reef snapped at Lo "As I was saying! By this point Emma has come up to the two guards, crying about how she was out walking her beloved dog before she accidentally let go off the leash and the dog ran off, and now she cant find it!"

"Where are we gonna get a dog?"

"Broseph! What did I _just_ say about minor details!" Reef cleared his throat and continued on "-and then, when Emma begs them to help her find her darling pet and the two are convinced enough to follow her back outside…we knock the pair unconscious from behind!"

The group just stared. That was a bit of a lack-lustre ending to what started as such a creative sounding plan. The silence was broken by broseph, who jerked his thumb over to the side of the house.

"Or we could just hop the back fence? Which seemed like a much less retarded and violent option.

"…That could work too"

**AN: Okay! I know. I suck! They're not **_**actually**_** at the party yet. And yeah this is a pretty short chapter, it just felt right to cut it off at this point so the party chapters are kept solely as them AT the party. But don't worry, the next chapter, and a few after that, will be them living it up and getting into shenanigans. Will those bouncers be back? What will Brittany think of the groms showing up? Will Fin keep a hold of Reefs hand all night? Find out next chapter.**

**Also a special thanks to InvaderZara, Roscieee and ., plus anon and Persephone, who left some lovely reviews, thanks guys!**


	4. Dude, it's not a chick drink!

**I promised you the new chapter fast, and I got you the new chapter fast. So here you go little monsters! Enjoy the start of the party.**

**Disclaimer: Surprisingly, I don't own stoked or any of its characters.**

The groms managed to sneak undetected around the back of the house, which was a bit of a trek, considering how massive this mansion was, and get over the wooden fence easily enough (Fin had the common sense to take her heels off for that venture, putting them back on as she hopped over to the other side). Reef was the last one to hop down from the top of the fence on to the compact dirt of a garden bed. They could hear the thumping music of the party, but there vision was blocked by a massive array of trees and hedges right in front of them.

"Okay, where the hell are we now?" slightly miffed his grand idea hadn't been used.

They'd ended up at the back, secluded part of the Davis households' garden,in an overgrown tropical flower bed, they doubted any one at the party could see them through the thick mess of foliage. They could hear the rest of the partygoers and they peeked their heads through the leaves to get a look. Brittany's house had an impressive sized out-door deck area. Right in front of the tropical garden bed, in which they were currently standing in, there was a luxuriously big pool, complete with a row of deck chairs lined up at its side. A small staircase led up to a mahogany wood platform, a silver railing around it which several party goers were leaning against, they're backs to the awed faces of the groms. They couldn't see how many people were already up there, but it looked pretty packed, and as the DJ cranked out some generic party tunes it only added to the atmosphere.

"Dude, this looks sick!"

"Shhh, keep it down!" Emma shushed Broseph as his voice couldn't contain his eagerness. She may have agreed to tag-a-long, but was still concerned about the bouncers and the risk of getting caught. And she hadn't exactly come up with any excuses for what they were doing crouched behind some bushes, if they were found here. Broseph mimed zipping his lip.

"Okay. Everyone just act casual. Just as if we _hadn't_ committed home invasion" Lo whispered as she led her friends.

" _And_ act as if we aren't just six teenagers randomly emerging from the bushes..."

"That's the idea Fin!" Lo said enthusiastically.

Fin was about to snark back about Lo being unable to detect her sarcasm, and about just how absurdly un-subtle they would look, but she was too slow. Lo had already lunged herself through the bushes and the others watched as they saw her emerge out on the other side. Before Fin could say anything else at all, the others had followed suit and pushed themselves through as well, Reef pulling her at the same time Dammnit! This hand holding thing sucked…well actually, now that she thought about it some more, she didn't mind it as much as she thought she would've. Fin had expected sweaty palms and a far-too-tight grip, but it was actually pretty nice to have Reefs strong hand enveloping hers. It felt…natural in fact.

A few kids who had been lounging on the deckchairs, away from the main party, did a double take as they saw Lo, then Broseph, Emma, Lance, and Reef pulling a struggling to walk-fast Fin…but hey, it wasn't they're problem, and they ignored it. Not without some weird looks directed there way though. Reef waved with his free hand as the group dashed up the stairs. Subtly.

"Hey guys! Whatsup? Oh hey Rachel! Havent seen you in ages! Love your dress Michelle! Marcus! Hows it goin'?" Lo blended in easily, saying hi to people as they walked past, giving out the occasional hug to girlfriends from school, Not really waiting for any replies as she surged through the crowd. It wasn't surprising though, she was a local after all and she and Brittany shared a lot of friends, of course she knew practically everyone here. The others just followed in tow, Broseph was giving out his own greetings to a couple of people he knew, he was a local too, but didn't hang out with most of this rich crowd. Emma was glancing around, head swivelling around like a meerkat, trying to spot any scary looking dread-locked guys in muscle shirts ready to kick them out. Reef was just bopping his head to the music as he pulled Fin after him, who was busy focusing herself ('Heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe.').

Meanwhile Brittany had been up on the miniature stage next to the DJ, instructing him on exactly what pussycat dolls songs could, and could-not, be played, when a pretty Asian girl and another blonde girl, hoisted themselves up on to the platform to come over to her.

"What is it guys? Tammy-" she looked over at the Asian girl "-I already told you, I am not playing that stupid Justin Timberlake song, its sooo old and-" She was interrupted however by the blonde blurting out what she had to say, a panicked expression on her face.

"Lo's here!"

Tammy winced as the announcement left her friends mouth, having wanted to explain the problem a bit more tactfully herself, knowing Brittany wouldn't be happy with the news.

The last thing Tammy, or anyone wanted, was for Brittany to get upset.

"What!" Brittany immediatly whipped her head around and scanned the deck floor, quickly spotting Lo below in the crowd of people. "Ridgemount…" She practically spat out the word through clenched teeth as here eyes narrowed.

"Urgh, sorry, I don't think I know that song-" Brittany didn't bother with whatever the DJ had been saying as she turned with her hands on her hips towards her two best friends.

"We don't even know how she got in! We got my brothers at the front door to act as bouncers and told them not to-" The words tumbled out of the blonde girls mouth, a mixture of panic and nerves in her voice.

"Shut it Chelsea! I don't care how she got in, point is she needs to be _out!"_ Brittany snapped at the blonde, who didn't snap back , used to her best friends temper. Brittany pushed past the two as she stepped down angrily from the platform, surging through the crowd, her targets set on Lo. The two girls, Tammy and Chelsea, looked at each other anxiously before quickly scurrying after their unofficial leader.

The groms had already found themselves on the opposite side of the party, right next to the snack table. Oh, I'm sorry, did I say snack table? What I meant was full scale, restaurant quality Buffet. There was everything a Teen would ever want to eat, pizza squares, sausage rolls, Chips, dips, gummi bears, spring rolls, popcorn…there was even a make your own Sundae bar!

"Best .Party…ever!" Broseph threw his hands up with delight, gaining a few looks while he did so, before plunging his hands into various assorted bowls of chips. He grabbed as much as each hand could hold, one side was salt and vinegar and the other barbeque, taking turns to munch from each his left and his right. A satisfied look on his face. Free food was the sweetest food.

"Ok" Reef grabbed everyone attention, well apart from Broseph, who by this point was too busy cramming Gummi bears into his pockets for later to pay attention to anything anyone was saying. "I'm gonna' call out a colour, and the last person to touch something of that colour has to be the responsible sober person tonight" Reef smiled "and by that, I mean you'll be the one who gets to hold my hair while I puke, okay?" All of the groms were determined to be able to get their drink on at this party, and they were even _more_ determined not to end up being Reefs designated bathroom attendant for the night.

"Okay" Reef set his voice in a serious tone and the groms tensed as if waiting for the starting gun to a one-hundred metre dash "…1…2…3…YELLOW!" There was a sudden mass of commotion as Reef lunged towards the snack table and grabbed a yellow plastic drink cup, coming in first. Fin stuck her hand straight down her dress and revealed the edge of a yellow bra, a close second. Emma looked around frantically before snatching a yellow coloured daisy from a nearby pot plant and Lance reached for a bottle of pineapple Cruiser from the stash of alcohol he'd been carrying, holding the yellow drink triumphantly above his head. Lo, panicking that she'd be the one in last place, took a running leap into the air, before crash-landing herself onto Broseph, jumping onto his back and smacking him hard right on his bright yellow fro.

"WOAH! What the he-" Brosephs eyes widened as Lo took him completely by surprise as he finally tore his attention away from the buffet, because frankly, a girl jumping on top of you and assaulting your hair tended to break ones focus.

"What the…what's happening!" Broseph dropped the slice of pizza he'd been holding to the floor as Lo wrapped her legs around his waist and out her arms over his shoulders, hand still resting on top of his head. He wasn't exactly complaining about that…but an explanation would be nice.

"You lose bro!" Reef twirled the yellow cup he held in his hand triumphantly "you're the sober one for tonight!" Brosephs face fell.

"What? Dude that's not fair, I wasn't listening!"

"Well its not my problem you couldn't resist the call of Gummi bears, now is it?" Reef smiled " You should have been paying attention" Broseph frowned.

Lo wrapped her legs around him tighter, which quickly gained his attention let me tell you, and moved her head so it was in the crook of his neck "Sorry Broseph, better luck next time" She smiled and Broseph could feel her breath against his neck as she spoke "But thanks for making sure it wasn't me"

Okay, Broseph was smiling again.

And it was at that exact moment that Brittany made her presence known, Tammy and Chelsea right behind her. She did one of those pretentious time-to-focus-on-me coughs to gain their attention "So, Lo...what _exactly_ are you doing here?" She said it with an extremely fake smile and cold eyes. Brittant glanced over at the others, and glared at Emma, who was currently still holding that yellow daisy, a large clump of dirt hanging off the end of it. Emma laughed nervously as she delicately placed the now wilting flower back into its pot plant, and stepping back, a guilty look on her face. Then she looked at Lo, who was still clinging to Broseph, an eyebrow raised at the somewhat…weird…behaviour. "Didn't you hear its not open house anymore? Not just anyone can be here now" A puzzled look crossed Chelsea's face, it looked like she was thinking hard.

"I thought it was just Lo we didn't want coming…I mean you let all of those other people in befo-Owww!" She was interrupted by Tammy digging a sharp elbow into her side, accompanied by a shut-it-or-its-my-heel-straight-into-your-foot-next look. "Uh, I mean, yeah…invites only…" Lo new Chelsea from school, having been pretty close friends with her before she and Brittany had that major falling out over her brother. Chelsea had decided to side with Brittany in the aftermath, unfortunately. She was hardly the sharpest crayon in the box (major understatement right there) and even if she did go along with whatever Brittany did or said, she was mostly harmless. Brittany just rolled her eyes as Chelsea shrugged her shoulders in apology for letting it slip.

"Well _Brittany-_" Lo said, with an equally fake smile as she slid off of Broseph and stood up straight to her full height (and that would be an intimidating 5'2 …) and put her hands on her hips "-I just thought I'd come and liven up the party. I mean who knows how dull it would be with just you and _your_ friends" Lo gave the smallest of nods towards Tammy and Chelsea. Yeah, Lo could bring out the uber-bitch in herself too, and by this point Emma and Fin were standing behind Lo just as Tammy and Chelsea were behind Brittany. It was girl code to back up your friend in what is known as a "bitch-standoff"(The technical term for it)

Broseph, Reef and Lance just stood off towards one side, keeping right out of it. It was honestly like watching an old western movie, with the two groups, the good sheriffs, and the crooked bandits facing off against one another at sundown. But instead of old toughened cowboys, these were teenage girls. In other words, a far scarier alternative.

Brittany just raised her eyebrows, amazed Lo even had the nerve to say something so blatantly rude (Brittany had a much more, nice to your face, mean behind your back, style). Lo continued on.

"And don't forget that I was _personally_ invited by you this morning, with _Ty_, remember?" Lo dealt the final blow by laying down her brother's name. Brittany hated being reminded that Lo was actually closer to Ty than she was, or ever will be (The fact that it was because of the family bond didn't do much to console her) . Just as it looked like Brittany was about to ram a sharp acrylic nail into Lo's eye, Ty turned up. Speak of the devil.

"Heya' ladies" Ty said smoothly, giving a small wave of acknowledgment to the group of six girls, obviously not picking up on any of the tension between them all. He threw an arm around his sister and Lo took this opportunity to send a smug glare Brittany's way.

"Glad you came out tonight sis', decided to take my advice after all?" He said, referencing their conversation from this morning. He then looked over to Brittany "And good to see you guys talking civilly to each other" Yeah right. Where was he a minute ago? In a sudden and complete change in attitude, Brittany replaced her glare of contempt with a sweet, innocent, smile.

"Oh, I'm just so _happy-_" You could hear her voice strain a little bit as she said that part "-that Lo decided to show up to my party! With all her friends as well!" She gestured over to the groms, who wore less than impressed expressions, verging on frowns. "I can just tell were gonna' have a good night together!" She flashed one of her beaming Colgate smiles that would make any dentist proud, but was just making Lo feel sick. God, Ty must be the most gullible boy in the tri-state area to not see through this girl, Lo thought as he smiled back.

"Okay then, bye Brittany!"

"Wait, I wasn't done talki-"

"_BYE_ Brittany!" Lo repeated, this time with a lot more emphasis on the 'bye' part. Brittany just rolled her eyes as Ty wasn't looking and sauntered off, Tammy and Chelsea scampering after her obediently. Lo smiled victoriously as she watched the three strut their way back through the crowd. Brittany obviously couldn't kick Lo out now that Ty knew she was here. Brittany new Lo could just call her brother the second she and her friends got kicked back outside. Looks like Brittany would have to act nice all night, if she wanted to stay in Ty's good book that is.

"So is anyone gonna' actually take these drinks? Because I'm getting pretty sick of carrying them" Lance dumped the various cases of alcohol he'd been lugging around onto a free space on the nearest table, flexing his sore arms (He was also flexing them to show off his toned arms, hoping that Lo might take notice). Lo didn't even snatch a look in Lances direction, instead she just went straight towards the cardboard cases and grabbed a bottle of strawberry vodka-cruiser, a brightly coloured Alco pop.

"Don't mind if I do" She turned to Emma "You want one Em?" Lo asked casually.

"Oh, um, sure…" Emma tried to sound as non-chalant about it as she could, but really she'd never had a proper drink of Alcohol in her life. Once, in eighth grade, she decided to sneak a sip of her mom and dads wine from the cellar, but after one sip she decided the stuff was nasty and never really bothered with it again. She regretted that now, she didn't want Ty (who was standing right there for gods sake!) to think she was some total goody-two shoes dork _baby_ who'd never even had a drink before! Unfortunately, Lo seemed to have read her mind.

"Awwww Emma! You've totally never gotten drunk before have you, hmmm?" Lo teased innocently, but Emma blushed hard and wished she would shut up! "What a cutie! Your so innocent" Lo pinched Emma's cheek jokingly, putting on a soppy baby voice while she was at it.

"Quit it!" Emma slapped Lo's hand out of her face, her voice coming off a bit harsher than intended. Lo looked taken aback for a second, before brushing it off as something she shouldn't make a big deal off. Emma herself seemed a bit surprised about where that little outburst came from, but she couldn't exactly take it back.

"Well, sorry Emma, I was just teasing…" Lo reached into a case and brought out another Alco-pop, this one was pink though. She held it out to Emma "Its guava flavoured, one of my favourite kinds" She leant closer when she saw Ty wasn't listening "and don't worry, these things couldn't get a kitten drunk! They'll be perfect for your first time drinking" Emma tried to look thankful over Lo's 'considerate' gesture, but she could only manage a small smile. She hated that the guys all thought of her as the do-gooder, that she never did anything wild or bad! She hated the fact that they were right about it even more. However she didn't say anything, why ruin the mood of the night by bringing up such a small issue over something as stupid as alco-pops?

"Hey, chuck me one of those strawberry flavoured ones too, Lo!" As soon as Reef said it Fin burst out laughing and the Lo, Broseph and Lance laughed along with her.

"Dude, that's a chick drink!" Lance said as he grabbed himself a beer, an acceptable manly drink. Reef looked offended.

"No way! Guys can drink cruisers, it's a uni-sex drink!"

Lo took a swig from her own bottle, which was surprisingly almost half empty. Lo could drink fast. "Reef, trust us. It's a chick drink" She smirked as the others continued to chuckle.

"It is _not_ a chicks drink…" Reef said, sulkily, as he opened his cruiser. Who cares what they thought anyway! The stuff tasted nice…

'Hey, you over there!" The groms turned around as they heard a deep male voice call out. It was a bunch of guys, all turned towards them, around a plastic lawn-furniture table that had a bunch of plastic cups all set up at each end to form pyramid shapes. Oh yeah. It was a beer pong game. One of the guys, cap turned "stylishly" backwards on his head, was pouring beer into each one of the cups so that they stood half full. There were about eleven of them, but the guy who'd yelled out originally pointed out his finger towards the groms, so they knew he was talking to them.

"Were short one player for the next game, you in?"

Lance smiled "Yeah, I'm game!" But the guy with the cap shook his head.

"Nah bro, we meant the other dude. The guy with the chick drink!"

Reef glared. It was a _uni-sex _drink goddamnnit! He was about to tell them to go find some other guy to play their stupid game, but he felt a tug on his hand, and he looked down at a smiling Fin. "C'mon! I love beer pong. I've played with my brothers heaps of times, I'm like a pro at it". Reef tried to resist it as he looked down at Fin, but he couldn't do it and sighed, Fin was too cute with that eager smile on her face. Reef forced himself to stand up tall, and made his way over to that table with Fin grinning form ear to ear, still holding his hand.

"Hey, ima' go hit the bathroom quickly, kay?" Lo just nodded as Broseph quickly disappeared after Reef and Fin. It was just her, Emma and Ty standing around now. Lance was over a few metres away talking into his cell phone, one hand covering his free ear, obviously trying to block out some of the noise (Bonus fact. Lance was actually trying to call Ripper, who the groms had forgotten was out parking the car. Right now the poor Australian was trying to bargain his way , unsuccessfully , past the two thugs at the door. Those two were still under the impression that Lo and any of her friends were still not allowed in. Oh well, sucks to be him I guess) . So it was awkward with just the three of them standing around. Ty was checking something on his phone, Emma was gazing dreamily at him, as if Ty sending a text was the most beautiful thing she would ever see, and Lo was glaring, trying to send telekinetic brain waves to her best friend ('Don't get with my brother, don't get with my brother, don't get with my brother-').

Another boring minute went by like this before Ty snapped his phone shut and turned to face Emma as he slid it back into his jeans pocket. "So Emma-" He started, giving her the once-over with his eyes, looking her up and down "- I like your dress. Greens my favourite colour" He flashed a smile and Lo rolled her eyes as she saw Emma practically melt into a puddle right there and then.

"Oh, wow, thanks!" Emma gushed. In her head she was practically screaming with happiness, but thankfully she didn't let that show "Yeah, I _love_ green. I mean I would dye my hair green if I could, I love it that much!"

Oh, yeah, she totally just said that.

The voices stopped screaming for a minute and fell silent with disbelief. Even the imaginary people living in Emma's own head where embarrassed for her right now. Lo cringed for her while Ty just quirked an eyebrow, an amused smile on his face "Uh…yeah, I guess you could do that…if you wanted to" He laughed, thinking it was some sort of joke and all Emma could do was laugh along awkwardly with him in an effort to downplay the fierce blush that had spread itself across her cheeks. God, Emma thought, why didn't they teach you how to talk to cute guys in school? She would gladly sign up for a Flirting-101 course, majoring in 'not making a total ass of yourself'. If only.

Luckily, it looked like no educationary courses were needed, as Ty smiled back down at Emma "So, you wanna' go grab a seat near the pool?" Emma resisted the temptation to scream out a 'hell yeah!' at the top of her lungs, and instead just went with a "Yeah, sure thing" managing to keep her cool this time. Lo had been in the middle of sculling the last few drops of her drink, before practically spitting out and glaring slack jawed as her brother started to lead Emma away form her.

Oh no he didn't!

Lo rushed forward and grabbed onto Emma's arm "wha? Lo, what is it?" Emma stopped and winced, Lo had a tight grip on her arm. Ty noticed he wasn't being followed anymore and turned back questioningly "I…um…was just about to...ugh… ask if you wanted to go dance with me!" Lo applauded her quick thinking skills in her head, She tried to put on a convincing smile "I love this song!" She said, without actually listening to what was playing. Unfortunately at the moment, a familiar song was playing out from the two huge speakers next to the dance floor.

'_Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting staaars-"_

Emma yanked herself out of Lo' grip "I thought you said this wasn't a good party song?" Crap, Lo thought, her comments having just come back to bite her in the ass, Emma seeing right through her ruse. She started walking back towards Ty, calling back over her shoulder to Lo "I'll dance with you later ok?" Though she said it with a minimal amount of friendliness. Maybe if her friend had been sincere she would have considered it, but Emma could obviously tell Lo had only asked in an attempt to get her away from Ty. There was a point where Lo had to realize that she liked Ty, and even if He was her brother she didn't have the right to try and ruin this for her. She just wished Lo could see it her way.

Lo sighed, frustrated and angry that her friend had totally just ditched her to go hang with her brother, just like Brittany had done all those years ago, and Lo defiantly didn't want her friendship with Emma to end like that one had. So yeah, Lo didn't want Emma going after her brother, and maybe she wasn't above telling a few lies to stop that relationship from ever developing, but it was for her own good! She just wished Emma could see it her way.

"Hey, need another drink?" Lo turned to stare up at Lance, who held out another drink, this time something a bit stronger than an Alco-pop. Lance held up a large bottle of Absolut-vodka. Lo looked down at the empty cruiser in her hand, then back up to Lance.

"Sure, why not" She shrugged. Lance was about to grab a can of coke and a plastic cup, planning to mix a bit of vodka into it and offer it to Lo, but before he could say anything Lo had already grabbed the bottle from his hands and tilted back her head to take an un-ladylike swig from it. Lance just looked wide-eyed as Lo brought the bottle away from her lips and screwed up her face. "Ugh, haven't done that in awhile" She said, before raising the bottle and going for more. She was already sick of this party, stupid Brittany and her cronies, her ex-friends, trying to ruin her night. As well as that whole thing with Emma, with her own brother being an ass and stealing her it wasn't as if Emma was being a good friend tonight either! Well screw the lot of them! Lo was tired of having to deal with them all, she just wanted to forget about her problems and finally let loose…

**So, the party has officially started, and all the groms have separated and gone their own ways. There's some definite tension brewing between Emma and Lo over this thing with Ty, with neither girl understanding how the other feels. Looks like Lo wants to try and drink away her problems and Emma finally wants to stop going along with whatever her friends say and make her own choices, wonder how that'll turn out? Fin and Reef will be having a far less dramatic time as they're off to compete in a beer pong show down, and what the heck's broseph gonna do when he cant find any of his friends! Keep reading to find out!**

**A big thanks to all reviewers, including anonymous ones! You guys are far too kind and I love writing for you! Check out my Deviantart account (Nina-D-Lux) to check out a pic I did of Lo and Fin in my own style (shameless self-promotion for the win)**


	5. Dude, take the shot!

**Whattup guys! New chapter, it would have been up even sooner if my Internet had decided not to screw itself over. Oh well, its up now! Get readin'!**

**Disclaimer: surprisingly, I don't own stoked or any of its characters.**

Johnny sighed. How did this happen? He was stuck at home on a Friday night, all of his friends where out probably up to some crazy shenanigans, and where was he? At home playing monopoly with snack shack, that's where. I don't need to tell you that is was _absolutely thrilling_. He picked up one of the hotel pieces and gazed at it thoughtfully, considering jamming the thing straight into his eye. Going to hospital and having an eye removed would be damned more fun than anything that was going on here.

"Oh, you landed on Flinders street! That'll be $350, oh is that all your money? Looks like I win again then, for the third time! Ahahaha- hey, where you going Johnny? Don't you want to play aga-"

"NO!"

Snack shack blinked wide eyed as Johnny jumped up from his spot on the coach, knocking the monopoly board to the ground, scattering little green and red houses all over the floor and sending a pile of paper money flying into the air. He watched it flutter gently to the floor as an awkward silence pierced the air.

"…Well then…Kelly?"

"Bite me, Tubby" The red head snarled, not even looking up from the book she'd been reading.

"Ookay then…"

Johnny rarely got angry but he was in a foul mood as he stomped outside to the deck and slammed the front door behind him, before flopping down onto one of the sofas.

He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, half hoping for a message from one of the guys. No new messages. Well this sucked. It was around 9 o'clock by now, they must be at a party if they were still out this late. Johnny flipped through his contact list. He was going to try calling again.

"OOOOH! And that's another miss from the Reefster!" Reef cursed as his ping-pong ball overshot all of the cups he was aiming for and bounced down to the ground, all of the guys either grumbling because he was on their team, or cheering because he wasn't on theirs. He briefly noticed his phone vibrating in his pocket, but he didn't want to answer it right now, this game was way too intense. Fin was down the opposite end of the table, and had been picking up the lost ping-pong balls and throwing them right back at Reef every time he missed ("Come on Reef! Take another shot! Woo yeah!") But for the last 5 shots he'd missed consecutively, she was cheering a little less enthusiastically and this time she'd started to lose her patience.

"C'mon Reef! It's not hard, learn to aim!" It was bad enough she couldn't play herself. The guys dominated the table and the only place girls could be was at their side to cheer them on and pretend that seeing them flip a ball in a cup was the coolest thing they'd ever seen.

A dark brunette haired girl, who had been standing next to fin, leant over to talk "Yeah you tell him girl, I hate it when _my_ boyfriend misses all the shots I could have gotten myself too" Fin immediately started on the defensive.

"What! No! He's not my boyfriend, no way! Why would you think that? That's so wrong!"

The girl just looked at Fin "...But weren't you two holding hands just a minute ago?" she said questioningly. The girls theory was pretty solidly based, I mean the way Fin had been cheering Reef on the whole time? And the way Reef had been checking to see if Fin was watching every time he took a shot? Even a blind idiot would have assumed the two were totally going out. Fin stammered.

"Oh, well, um, yeah… you see. That's because-"

"OH and he's missed it _again_ ladies and gentlemen!" The guy in the baseball cap threw up his hands and put on his best mock-commentator voice. The guys and girls who'd been standing around watching laughed along with him while Reef just rolled his eyes in frustration. It was bad enough he was embarrassing himself in front of all these guys, but in front of Fin too!

Fins jumbled explanation to the brunette girl, explaining just how absurd it would be to think she and Reef were going out. was cut short . Both herself and the other girl had turned to listen as baseball cap-guy (I think his name was Trent or something? Fin couldn't remember) was in the middle of humiliating Reef some more. Fin totally forgot about what she was in the middle of doing.

"Oh for gods sake! Let _me _have a go and I'll show you how its done!" Without even finishing her sentence to the Brunette girl, Fin had already started her way down the length of the table, grabbing onto the edge for support as she walked. Reef was about to protest but Fin had already pushed him out of the way so she had room. Trent looked back at his teammates and friends and shrugged, why not? The game had been getting pretty boring, maybe having a betty taking a novelty shot could provide some entertainment. Plus if she missed as well, it would just be all the more funny.

"Okay then! Lets all hear it for the little-lady?" A little chorus of whoops and cheers went up from a few people, mostly from the other girls watching. Fin would have jammed the heel of her ridiculously tall shoes straight into Trent's foot for referring to her as 'a little lady' but she was far too focused at the moment. She took the ping-pong ball that was passed to her and rolled it around in her hand. There were only 3 cups left down at the end of the table, so it wasn't an easy target. Her eyes narrowed as she locked the cup in her gaze, steadying herself on the heels, drew back her hand…and let the ball fly. It soared for only a couple of seconds, but it seemed like it was in slow motion. Reef was kind-of hoping she didn't get it in, knowing how hard the guys would laugh when they saw a chick manage to throw better than him, but in the back of his mind he was cheering for her a little as well. The brunette girl and all of her girlfriends had stopped to watch in anticipation, a girl had finally gotten a chance and they didn't want her to let them down! Fin hardly breathed as the ball left her hand and the nearly every other person there was silent. Gee, they were getting a bit melodramatic over a Beer pong game right?

Fin barely had time to register wether she got the ball in or not as a big cheer erupted from the small audience! She'd got it in! The group of girls all started squealing and jumping up and down clapping their hands in excitement, and the guys were similarly cheering in surprise and awe, a little respect for Fin showing through. Trent just looked on impressed, a big grin on his face. He grabbed the cup of beer with the ping-pong ball in it and handed it ceremoniously to Fin "Drink up winner!" Because if you didn't know, the rules of Beer pong dictate a winning shot earns the player the right to scull.

Fin had been downing her drink and high-fiving the girls, welcoming all the compliments and whoops of praise with a big triumphant grin on her face, just as Reefs voice cut through the noise. "Bet you couldn't do it a second time!" He stood in front of her, another ping-pong ball held in his hand, and a challenging smirk on his face. A murmur swept through the crowd as the cheers died down, everyone was watching Fin to see what she would do. Fin was disappointed at first, Reef hadn't congratulated her like everyone else had, and it was his cheers she had wanted to hear the most…I mean, just so she could hear him tell her how awesome she was, and to admit how much he sucked! That was all! She quickly changed her facial expressio to one of cool-nonchalance and put her hands on her hips.

"I could _easily_ do it a second time" Fin was oozing confidence on the outside, even if she wasn't feeling too hot on the inside. Yeah she was good at beer pong, and usually this shot would've been easy, but now the pressure was on. Reef had challenged her directly, and if she didn't make this, the guys would go back to thinking that last winner was just a lucky fluke instead of pure skill. Fin grabbed the ball out of Reefs hand as he smiled belittlingly at her. She would show him.

"But" Everyone turned back to Reef "Why don't we make this a little more interesting?" Fin quirked an eyebrow and a buzz broke out among the crowd, which had ended up growing bigger than before. All the commotion they'd made before over Fin had drawn more spectators to gather around the table, and now expectations were even higher. Reef grabbed the last few cups of beer off the table before dragging the light plastic table easily, bringing it further away from where Fin stood. The crowd parted as Reef barged past them with the table, the murmuring growing stronger. He finally dropped the table about another 6 metres away and then placed one single plastic cup back onto the very end of the table. Reef looked back up at Fin and met her gaze. "You wanna' try make this shot?"

Fin glared daggers at Reefs cocky face. What was he trying to prove? Setting up this almost impossible shot! That guy just could not take losing graciously. A few people complained, especially the group of girls that had un-officially become Fins cheerleaders, with the Brunette leading them (Her name was Tina, as Fin later found out)

"C'mon, that's not fair!"

"Yeah! Give the girl a break, you jerk!"

Fin and Reef ignored the shouts; instead they just held each other's gaze, having a silent battle of wills. Reef had a taunting smile on his face and Fin was intent of glaring back at him as much as possible, trying to convey how much she thought he sucked right now.

Trent held up his hands to silence the crowd. "Settle down Betties, this looks interesting doesn't it? Don't you want to see if Blondie here can really show us what she's got?" He looked around at the crowd as they raised their arms up in the air and cheered.

"Yeah! Come on Blondie!"

"In it to win it!"

"Do it for the girls! Whoop!"

"Your hot!"

Trent, having successfully pumped up the crowd, turned back to Fin "You ready then Blondi-"

"My names Fin"

Trent was a bit taken aback by the dead-serious face Fin had and her steely tone, but shook it off "Well Alright then Fin, start aiming then!" He clapped his hands together "She's ready, folks!" Trent stepped back into the audience that formed a long oval around the table and Fin, as well as the impressive distance between the two, everyone craning their necks to get a look. Reef stood at the end of the table, his arms folded, staying silent and watching.

Fin did the same thing as she'd done last time, taking a deep breath and envisioning exactly where she wanted that ball to land. She pulled back her arm, she needed to make a much longer throw if she wanted to get it in, and the small target of the cup seemed to shrink even more with every other second she looked at it. Just as she was about to take a small step forward to take her shot, was when Reef saw it. A small Piece of wood had broken away from the panelled floor of the deck, leaving a small hole gaping in Fins path. He practically saw it in slow motion as Fin steeped forward, the back of her heel going straight into the chipped piece of floor, Reef looked on in horror as she tripped and stumbled forward, the ball leaving her hand as she came crashing down. A gasp left the audience as Fins body collided with the hard floor and the ball bounced off into the crowd.

"OOH! Fin has face-planted something bad!" Trent called out above a hysterical audience, laughing as Fin lifted herself up onto her hands to look around, her face a deep shade of red as everyone was either laughing or shaking their heads...while also laughing.

"What a kook!"

"This is why chicks don't play beer pong"

"Dude, haha, that was such a fail!"

"I'd help her up, but I'm too busy laughing!"

"She's still hot!"

Fin wanted to die right then and there she was that humiliated. Even the group of girls and Tina were trying to stifle their giggles. The crowd started thinning out, leaving to go find something else to entertain them, but she felt a familiar, strong set of hands pull her up from the floor.

"You don't plan on sitting there the rest of the night, do you?" Reef said, all traces of arrogance gone from his voice, and his face held a small smile. Fins face was still a bright red as she was hoisted up, but she tried pulling away from Reefs grip, having blamed him for the fall in the first place. It never would have happened if he hadn't been such a baby about her winning the first time! However Fin quickly stumbled right back into his chest as soon as she tried to stand up straight on her own, a hiss of pain escaping from her lips.

"Crap…I think I've done something to my ankle…I don't think I can walk on it" Fin said quietly as she clutched onto the front of Reefs shirt, balancing on one of her feet while the other was raised slightly in the air, it hurt when she tried putting force on it. She avoided looking Reef in the eye.

"You've probably just twisted it or something…" Reef couldn't help but sound a little guilty as he said it, having been partially to blame for the accident (More than partially in fact!). He looked down at her knees as well, which had been scraped from the fall and looked red and painful, a small trickle of blood showing. There were slight tears of pain in her eyes, but she tried to blink them away quickly.

"C'mon, we'll find a bathroom and get you cleaned up"

Fin quickly found her loud voice again and looked back up at Reef "I'm fine! I'll walk it off. It doesn't even hurt that much anymore!" She pushed her foot back down on the ground, only half managing to hide the look of pain that flashed across her face "…see?" Fin bared her teeth, in more of a grimace than a smile, in what must have been the least convincing 'fine' look, ever made.

Reef just looked at her deadpan, totally un-convinced. Before she could protest anymore Fin found herself being lifted up into the air, her feet leaving the ground in one swift movement. She gave out a surprised yelp as Reef picked her up, bridal style, and started carrying her through the party and back towards the house. "Ugh! What the hell you kook! Let me down!" Fins face was a fierce red as she struggled in Reefs arms.

"Oh just deal with it" Reef smiled as he held her closer. Everyone they passed turned to look as Reef pushed his way through the crowd, and this only made Fin blush harder.

"I'm not even joking, put me. Down. Now!" She tried to sound forceful but she couldn't help her voice from cracking a little. Reef had her pressed against his chest…his warm, well-toned chest …

Well, maybe she didn't mint being carried _that _much.

While Reef and Fin had been taking shots in their beer pong game, Lo had been taking shots of her own. The alcoholic kind, that is. She'd managed to find a group of school friends that conveniently had copious amounts of alcohol and were taught the value of sharing. So naturally she was sticking with them for the moment. Lo hissed as she downed another tequila shot and the liquid burned its way down her throat. That was the third one so far, joined with a half of Lance's vodka and another cruiser, Lo was starting to feel much, _much_, better.

Speaking of Lance, he'd been sticking to her like glue for the past hour or so. Lo had actually found it pretty annoying at first, but since everyone else had gone off their own way and he didn't know anyone else, Lo figured it wasn't that surprising he was following her around. In fact, and maybe this was the drink talking, Lo thought, he'd been pretty nice company. He was getting her drinks whenever she ran out, letting her sip his whenever she wanted, laughing at all her lame jokes (She'd gotten to the point of drunkenness where you can still _try_ to tell a joke, but you couldn't remember the punch line and just end up giggling hysterically at nothing). Lo still didn't think he was a particularly interesting person, but she wasn't exactly going to say no to free drinks and praise now, is she? Now who wants more tequila! Lo, that's who!

Broseph wandered throughout the house, having successfully made his way to the bathroom. Unfortunately when he had gotten there, there was a crying girl and her little support group of friends. Y'know the ones. Every party has that one girl who has maybe three drinks and suddenly she's sobbing in the bathroom because Tommy broke up with her last summer, or something equally heart wrenching, and now she has to be attended too by all her cooing friends. Broseph just rolled his eyes and had waited patiently outside the door…for about a solid forty-five minutes! Different girls kept on coming and going ("she wants to talk to Clarissa now!" "I heard someone's crying, should I go in there?" "Do you think a slice of pizza would cheer her up? I'll go fetch one"). Broseph was nearing the point where he seriously considered dashing out to the overgrown garden, before Sobby McSob-sob (Broseph was such a creative namer) and her little posse finally vacated the bathroom.

Quickly dashing in, before the girls had a chance to change their minds or check their makeup in the mirror again, Broseph locked the door behind him and finally got his relief. He looked around the bathroom, this Brittany girl really was rich. The floor was covered in marble finish, with gold fixtures on all of the taps and the plush looking towels on the handrails were monogrammed. Swanky. There was even a four-seater Jacuzzi! Wonder if you could surf in that if you turned the bubbles up high enough…

Broseph's potentially disastrous train of thought was de-railed as he was washing his hands, by his ringing cell in his shorts pocket. Ignoring the monogrammed towels, Broseph wiped his hands on his shorts and quickly grabbed out his phone.

"Yo"

"Brospeh!" The voice sounded both relieved and angry.

"Oh, hey Johnny, whassup with you?"

"What's up with me?_ What's up with you!_"

Broseph held the phone away from his ear slightly as Johnny's almost manic voice erupted from the other end of the line. Oh, yeah, Broseph had forgotten they'd forgotten to tell Johnny about their party-plans and were trying to avoid him right now. Oops.

"So where the hell are you guys right now!"

"Oh, um…at a …study sesh?"

"…Broseph, it's the middle of summer"

"Just eager to get a head start, brah"

"Its 10 o'clock at night!"

"Ugh…Libraries open late on Fridays…"

"Since when do _any_ of you study!"

True that.

"Okay, okay. Were at a party-" 

"I knew it!"

"-Its down the coast line, 74 Dove ridge drive. We were gonna' invite you man but-"

Broseph stopped as he heard a dial tone. Johnny had hung up. He shrugged as he put the cell away and walked out of the bathroom. More people had started to invade the inside of the house, spilling from the deck through the white French doors. There were already some dark stains that littered the immaculate (not any more) carpet, and the beige furniture. Have you ever noticed that? Rich peoples home always had cream and beige furniture in their houses. Seriously.

"Oh, hey Broseph!"

Broseph spun around as he recognized the sound of Reefs voice behind him.

"Hey bro- whoa…so uh, whatsup?" He tried not to look alarmed at the site of a rather murderous looking Fin, with bloody knees and a bruised ankle, being carried in Reef's arms.

"Don't ask" She deadpanned, arms folded

"Don't mind her, " Reef replied casually " She just had a a bit of an accident-"

"And who's fault was that!"

"-So now Dr Reef's gonna' take her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up" He looked down at Fin and out on a chiding voice. "Maybe if you're good, I'll give you a lollipop!" He got a smack in the head for that one.

Broseph just nodded, for some reason, it didn't seem that odd that Reef and Fin got themselves into these situations anymore. It was practically routine by now. "Well bathrooms that way brah, turn right at that big vase-thing up there" He turned and pointed out the atrocious looking 'vase-thing' that stood on a small podium just at the end of the hallway. It wasn't actually a vase, it was one of those 'artist' glass sculptures that rich folks bought for thousands of dollars. Even if the thing was butt-ugly, it probably made the Davis's feel good to know they could spend a ridiculous amount of money on something they don't even need, and have it not even make an impact on their finances, they were just that stinking rich.

"Thanks dude" Reef quickly re-adjusted his hold on Fin ("Re-position that hand, if you know what's good for you!") and the three parted ways, Broseph heading back to the party outside.

Meanwhile, heading back down to the pool area, Ty and Emma had taken up one of the large white deck chairs. Ty was leaning back against it, on leg bent up so Emma had room to sit comfortably on the end of the long chair.

"-And _then_ she tells me to 'take a chill pill' when I start spazzing out-"

Ty was nodding along as Emma talked, having not really been paying attention to what she'd been saying for the last few minutes, having been staring at her chest pretty intently as she talked, as well as the way the hemline of her dress kept on snaking its way further up her leg every time she shifted her position. After his conversation with Lo this morning in the dining room, he was sure Emma was in to him and he smiled knowing that this would just make it so much easier to get a little action from her, If you know what I mean. Ty had so many girls after him, he was used to this game. They went all doe-eyed and fluttered their eyelashes at him, he'd put up with their boring chatter all night and listen to them talk on and on about themselves. He might decide to throw in a comment or two about the expensive new car he'll be getting for his next birthday, and about how his dad owns one of the biggest hotels in the area, just watching the girls eye light up at the sound of how much money he was sitting on, but anything else he said would get zoned out if it wasn't that or a compliment. Now don't get me wrong, Ty isn't a _complete_ ass when it comes to dealing with girls…. Well actually, he kind of is. But when you consider the fact that nearly every girl who's ever approached him has mostly done so because either, A) He's very good looking, or B) He's from a wealthy family, and after a while, it starts to make a guy see _every_ girl as a vain, money grubbing ho.

Like Brittany, for example. She was his first. Ty vaguely remembered her when she first started coming over to the penthouse with Lo after school, were they'd lock themselves in Lo's room and play with makeup or watch saddle-club. Usual thirteen-year old girl stuff he didn't care about. It was around another year and a half later before Ty and Brittany even said more than passing hellos or nods of recognition to each other. He'd be sitting in his room on the computer while Lo and Brittany would be messing around in Lo's own room, but Brittany would sometimes stick her head around the door, flashing her bright white teeth in a small smile, and ask if he wanted to hang out with them. Sometimes he would and sometimes he wouldn't. If they were watching a movie he liked, he'd more often than not join them then too, Brittany always snagging a seat next to him. He didn't really give it much thought at the time, about how much Brittany would try to hang around him, asking him how he was doing, laughing at all his jokes. It was only one night, when Lo had Brittany around the penthouse one night for a sleepover.

He was up late that night, watching a late night movie on TV at 11:30 when he was supposed to be asleep. He knew Lo and Brittany had already been sent by his drill sergeant of a dad to go and get to sleep. He also knew that his heavy-sleeper of a sister had probably already drifted off the minute her head hit the pillow. That's why he was so surprised to hear a faint knock at his door, before it was pushed open slowly to reveal Brittany who quickly slipped in and shut the door behind her. She was wearing nothing but her shirt, flimsy nightie, and a small smile on her face. To keep this story pg-13, I'm not going to go into detail about what happened next. But you can guess right?

So Ty just got used to it. Girls throwing themselves at him, I mean. In his eyes, he wasn't taking advantage of them, he just got used to the routine. Meeting them, getting them, leaving them and then being introduced to the next one.

"-and I was like, dude I have _every_ right to spazz out since you lost my ticket to go see the Gandavans live and-" Ty had just been continuously nodding for the past 10 minutes as the story went on, but at the last sentence a familiar name caught his attention s he snapped his head up too actually look Emma in the eye.

"Woah, wait a minute!" Emma blinked as Ty suddenly sprung to life. She'd honestly just been babbling on about an old fight she'd had with a friend forever-and-a-bit-ago only in order to avoid any potential awkward silences, as it looked like Ty wasn't keen on speaking much so far. But for whatever reason, Ty was speaking now.

"You like the Gandavans?" Ty asked incredulously, looking at Emma for any trace of sarcasm.

"Oh, yeah! They're like one of my fave bands of all time!" Emma's face lit up and so did Ty's. The Gandavans _were _only Ty's most beloved indie rock band _ever_! They were so obscure he thought he'd never actually meet anyone else who had heard about them as well. "That's why I was just telling you about how upset I was when Melissa lost my ticket. Remember?"

"Oh! Oh yeah, I was _totally_ listening…" Ty tried not to seem guilty, or like he had short-term memory loss, as Emma looked at him questioningly.

"Sooo...who's your favourite band member then?" he said, trying to change the subject, but also to see if Emma wasn't bluffing and actually did love the Gandavans as much as he did.

"Oh, definitely James Peterson!"

"Pfft, all you girls love the lead singer best, show some love for Anna Rodgers! She's the most kick-ass guitarist the groups had since Chris Stone left!"

"And all you _guys_ just love Anna because she's a total babe! So don't judge us!"

"Oh c'mon, you've got to admit she can play that guitar like a boss, right?"

"Defiantly, but you still don't deny you think she's a babe!"

"…Well yeah, that is part of it"

The two laughed as they continued to spar back and forth over things like what the Gandavans best album was, or wether having a poster of James Peterson hanging over your bed was totally sad, or a justified tribute to such an awesome front man.

Unbeknownst to them, Brittany had been watching the pair from up on the deck, looking down with contempt as Ty laughed and Emma was trying to explain how kissing a poster goodnight sometimes wasn't totally creepy or obsessive. (F.Y.I. it kind of is). Who did that dog think she is? She glared at Emma as the redhead giggled at another of Ty's jokes. Ugh, it made her feel sick. Forget getting back at Lo tonight, Brittany had a new target in mind.

Ty smiled at Emma, noticing that she got a little crinkle in her nose every time she laughed. He tilted back his head to take a sip of his drink, Smirnoff ice, if you care that much. Only a drop managed to touch his tongue, the rest air.

"Eh, looks like I need another drink" Ty turned to Emma "You want another one, Emma?"

Emma could have squealed so hard right now. She'd just found out the cutest, most awesome guy she'd ever met loved the Gandavans as much as she did, was totally talking to her, _and_ he remembered her name! Hallelujah! It's a summer beach-party miracle!

"Yeah, sure. Another cruiser would be awesome" Emma made sure to get a good look at the back of Ty's jeans as he walked away. Speaking of miracles…reow. As soon as he was out of earshot Emma finally let out a small squeal of excitement. This was totally the magic of the dress, this absolutely fantastic green dress! It must have luck sewn right into the seams. This was possibly the best night ever!

Ty bounded up the steps of the pool area and back up onto the deck, manoeuvring his way past the crowds of people and dodging some worryingly bad dancers as he dashed across the makeshift dance floor, finally ending up next the snack table/full course buffet. Another small table had been set up for drinks, but by this point in the night, basically all that was left were empty bottles and various stains from spilt drinks. Ty was scanning his eyes around the table looking for some sort of alcoholic beverage he could consume when he felt someone's thin, tanned arms wrap around him from behind.

Oh god, not her.

**Wooooaaah cliff hanger! Aint I a stinker? Can you guess who its gonna be?**

**Whats going to happen between Reef and Fin in the bathroom I wonder?**

**Is Johnny going to sit home and mope, or is he gonna crash this party too?**

**Will Ty maintain his jerkish playboy ways, or will he see that Emma's actually worthy of his time rather than a broken heart?**

**I know Broseph and Lo don't have much going on right now, but they'll get their moment too next chapter.**

**And you may have noticed I've added a few extra characters into this story by now. Brittany of course, and her two drones Tammi and Chelsea, who actually aren't that bad but just cave into whatever Brittany tells them to be like. Also Tina and Trent, from the beer pong game, they might show up again later for other plot purposes. So remember the names. Oh, and the Gandavans is a completely made up band FYI, I did steal the name from a group of people who have a band at my school, I just stole their name hehehe.**

**Lastly I just want to thank all you guys who reviewed, you're so lovely and I love reading them. Especially when you guys tell me what parts made you laugh and what your favourite parts were : )**


	6. Dude, that hurt!

**A/N: Hey guys! New chapter, whoo! Hope some people are excited for it! I'm pretty happy with it, though I wasn't able to fit in a lot of what I told people would be in this chapter…the ReefXFin scene was cut short, Broseph and Lo didn't get as much attention as I'd planned and Emma isn't exactly in this chapter at all… eek sorry guys! But it reached around 13 pages long and I was still only half way done with what I'd planned…so I thought it better to make a cut off point. Hopefully new chapter will be done soon too. Oh, and who guessed that the mystery girl with her arms around Ty would be Brittany? Well congrats! You're so wrong! Ahahaha (evil authoress cackle)**

"Whatsuuuup brooooo!"

Yeah, it was Lo. A completely smashed, Lo. Ty just rolled his eyes as his sister still clung to him.

"We never hang out anymore! Where's the brother sister bonding? C'moooon I'm like your _favourite_ sister!"

"Lo you're my _only_ sister"

"Yeah, but I'm still your favourite, right?"

" …Lo your drunk-"

"Well DUH!"

"-I think you should sit down"

"Nooo! I wanna party! PARTY HARD, WHOOO! Like its mah' birthday! Hey, I need another drink!"

"No, no you don't"

"Yeah, yeah I do! Somebody fetch me a pitcher of vodka, STAT! And none of that Smirnoff ice crap neither!Ahaha I said stat! Like a doctor from TV, or something. Have I told you how much I love Scrubs? That's a good show. Oh my god! I should get the box set for your birthday present! No wait, your birthday was like at the start of the year, I'm too late! Now you'll never have the Scrubs box set! I'm the worst favourite sister ever! "

"Lo, seriously-"

"Do you still looove meee!"

God, she was an annoying, affectionate, drunk. She did this at every party they went too together. It got old. Lance managed to wrench himself out of her grip, leaving her to stumble slightly and re-balance herself on a random passer-by, who turned around and revealed himself to be Lance.

"Oh my god, its you!" Lo gasped and pointed dramatically at Lance "He's been _following _me like the whooole night!" Lo laughed absentmindedly, not realizing how much of an impact that statement had on Ty, whose face had darkened slightly. No. This was Lance. He knew Lance, he wouldn't try it with his sister, would he? Ty had heard Lance bragging about the chicks he'd gotten with at parties and all that, down at the beach when they'd all sit around and try and impress the others with their 'conquests'. And yeah, it was pretty common to just get a few drinks in a girl beforehand, make it easier. It didn't exactly make the most impressive story, but a lay was a lay right? Ty just couldn't believe Lance would use that same tactic to go after his sister. Lance would totally respect the world-renowned friends-sisters-off-limits policy. Pretty sure that was like one of the Ten Commandments or something. Well, the commandments of being a decent bro that is.

"Oh, has he?" Protective older brother mode, initiated at 50% capacity, possible threat detected in the vicinity of Lance.

"Yeeeah, but its okay! He's been giving me drinks all night, so I don't mind it, haha!"

Protective older brother mode, 72% and rising. Okay, so Ty didn't have much to be suspicious about before, but with what Lo just said, and the way Lances eyes shifted around nervously as she said it, made a few alarm bells go off.

"Dude, how much have you let her have?" Ty couldn't jump to conclusions. Yes , it looked bad, but Lance was still a friend and he held out a hope that maybe he _was _just being paranoid. But still, if Lance had been with her the whole night, shouldn't he have been making sure she wasn't getting _too _out of control?

Lance shrugged and avoided Ty's gaze "I..i dunno. Just a little…"

"Five cruisers, half a bottle of vodka, 6 shots, a bit of Jessica's Smirnoff ice, but don't tell her I took that, and some baileys!YAY!"

Lo decided to be helpful, which surprisingly Lance didn't appreciate as he squirmed under Ty's ever growing glare.

Lo noticed her brothers foul expression "Oh don't worry Ty! I know I drank a lot, and that there's none left now, but it's okay!" Lance said he'd take me back to the staff house soon to go get some more with him" she smiled "so don't worry"

Oh dear.

Protective big brother mode now full capacity! Operate maximum glare directed at target, Lance! Everyone one in the nearby vicinity, vacate! Vacate! Vacate! L o had no idea that what she just said totally confirmed everything Ty had suspected. She just smiled obliviously between the two as Lance bit his lip and cursed under his breath and Ty just stared in disbelief and how low his own friend had just stooped. Of course he didn't just stare for long, that glare came back full force in about a split second. Just as things looked like they were about to get good, Lo stepped in the middle of the two and jabbed her finger right in the middle of Ty's chest.

"_Anyway!_ Back to what we were talking about! Even if I'm not your fav sister, since I couldn't get you Scrubs for your birthday, _You're _my favourite brother! For reals!" Lo put her finger up to her lips and started speaking in a stage whisper " But don't tell George!" before collapsing into giggles.

Well a big thankyou to Lo for breaking up that tense situat-

"Who says we weren't just going back for drinks? I totally didn't plan on doing anything!"

…Or not. I guess Lance couldn't see an opportunity to slink away quietly, even if Lo had just provided a perfect one. Idiot. It looked like he'd decided to stop playing innocent on the whole thing and just start to deny that he had planned on getting Lo drunk off her face, following her around the whole night, then tricking her to go back to the house, and into his bed, denying that he was totally not being a sleaze at all…which he so was. Did he really think he could convince _anyone_ that he wasn't the guilty one here? Even Reef would notice something was up.

And that's saying something.

Ty moved Lo roughly from in front of him as he stepped up close to Lance to do that whole macho, getting-all-up-in-his-face deal that boys do to show their manliness and whatnot. Frown on his face, puffing out his chest and staring right in Lances eyes. Lance squared his shoulders and looked confidently back. Lo just tottered to the side of them, totally not processing what was going on at all. By this point a few people around them had noticed the two guys and the atmosphere that just screamed a fight might be going down any minute. They'd just watched some Betty and her epic face plant a minute ago, and now a showdown? This party had some sweet entertainment.

"Don't think I don't see what you're trying to do!" Ty started up straight away, keeping his voice calm but it still had an edge to it that he couldn't hide.

'Oh, and what's that then?" Lance replied arrogantly, acting as if he hadn't done a thing, even putting on a mocking thin-lipped smile.

"Don't play dumb, man"

"I'm not 'playing' anything, I don't know what your on about"

"Seriously? C'mon, you're a friend right? Friends don't do this"

"Well man" Lance shook his head and shrugged "I just don't have any idea what your even accusing me of? We were gonna go back for more drink, since we _had_ run out, and then we were gonna' come back. Is that too hard to believe?" Lance was still determined to deny the whole thing.

Ty was not convinced "Stop. trying .to. get .with. my._sister!" _Ty said it slowly and deliberately, putting emphasis on the 'sister' part. Seriously, Lance was a friend, he should know what was off limits. Ty was holding Lances gaze, both boys glaring. It took a moment for Lance to reply, a smirk spreading itself across his face.

"Well from what I hear, guys don't have to _try_ very hard for that, ay?"

The second it came out of his mouth,before the audience could even gasp in a very Jerry-Springer-esque fashion, something in Ty snapped. Ty brought back his hand that was clenched into a tight fist, and was ready to swing it full force into Lances face…

However, just at that moment, Lady gaga decided to intervene.

"_RAH RAH AH AH AH. ROMA RO MA MA, GAGA OOH LALA-"_

"OH MY GOD! I love this song!- Want your bad romance!"

Lo had been standing on the sidelines, not really paying attention to the unfolding drama between her brother and that stupid douche-tastic asshole (formerly known as Lance), but as the familiar tune blasted out of the speakers she threw up her hand and started to dance and sing along. And if you haven't heard, Lo is a very…well lets just be polite and say 'enthusiastic' dancer. Imagine a small child with ADD having an epileptic fit. On crack. And having just won a million dollars on the price is right. Yeah, get the picture? Good. So its easy to imagine just how her crazy drunken dance moves quickly moved her right in front of that oncoming punch…

Broseph had been on the opposite side of the deck, chilling against the deck railing, talking to some kids from school. Yeah, his summer had been going pretty good so far, no, working at the hotel wasn't absolutely fantastic, yes, he _would_ like another drink but he'd been stuck as the designated sober guy tonight, but thanks for offering. Every conversation went around in boring circles, and every other second Broseph would try to scan the crowd to spot one of his friends.

"Well DUH!"

Brospeh had been engaged in a _very interesting_, one-sided, conversation with a girl that involved her telling him all about how she went to the store for some multi-grain bread, and when she got there, there was no multi-grain bread! They only had white bread! Imagine! Broseph could hardly hold in the laughter that came from hearing this hilarious, captivating story in all its irony.

Somehow he managed

But as he heard that 'well DUH' coming from across the deck, his head snapped up and he immediately spotted Lo. He smiled as he saw her awkwardly clinging on to her brother, Ty standing there looking uncomfortable. He almost did laugh out loud when he heard her ranting about a pitcher of vodka.

"Hey, are you listening! I was just about to get to the part where they actually _did_ have multi-grain bread and-" 

"Uh, yeah, that's cool but umm…I have to…go see…that guy…to do …stuff…for that thing…yeah…seeya!" Broseph didn't stick around to hear the rest of that riveting tale, leaving the girl looking deeply offended as he dashed off into the crowd.

He managed to manoeuvre his way past most people ('scuze me, pardon me, make way…move!') before he felt a grip on his arm. Oh crap, had he nudged that girl out of his way a little too hard? Broseph turned around, to see-

"Kahuna!

….Oh. Okay. Well that was unexpected.

"Whats'up man!"

Kahuna raised his hand for a high-five, which Broseph accepted, still taken by surprise.

"Uhhh hey dude, um…what…what are you doing here?"

Kahuna shrugged "Just chillin'" as if him being at a teenage girls house party wasn't weird at all.

"…sooo were you, like, invited?"

"Nope, was just walkin' along the beach, talking to sweet mother ocean" He paused for a second while Broseph just stared "...But then I realized sweet mother ocean had nothing interesting to say, so I rocked up here when I saw a party was on"

"Uh…huh"

Yeah, that sounded like something Kahuna would do. Did make Broseph wonder about those bouncers though. They wouldn't let in a bunch of kids who knew the girl, but they'd let in a crazy old hippy who wandered up off the beach? But I suppose you can't argue with professionals (at least not with, professionals with biceps the size of his own head and a glare that could make a rainbow turn grey)

Broseph awkwardly tried to start a conversation, since Kahuna seemed content to just stand there and stare at him smiling, as if waiting for something to be said.

" Sooo, havin' fun at the party?"

Kahuna nodded "Yeah, yeah. Been pretty good so far. Heard this really great story from some chick, it was all about bread, had me captivated from start to finish. I'll tell it to you sometime" He paused to take a sip of his drink, before letting out a satisfied 'aah' "So watcha' doin man?"

"oh ,actually I was just on my way to go find Lo and-"

"Oh yeah" Kahuna nodded " I remember, you have that giant crush on her right?"

"Yeah, that right, so seeya lat- and wait a minute, what?" Broseph did a total three-sixty in terms of mental thinking. Kahuna knew he liked Lo? How! He hadn't even told Reef yet! He knew Kahuna was weird, but could he read his mind? Was this the work of magic? Was Kahuna actually a mad crazy wizard with access to demonic powers of mind manipulation! Was he reading his mind right now! Would he kill him for finding out his secret, would he-

"You told me that one time, when you were bumming off from work "

Oh yeah. Now he remembered.

"So you planning on asking her out tonight or what?" Kahuna asked casually as he took a sip of his drink. Broseph just looked at him as if he were joking.

"nooo way man" He tried to say it jokingly, but he couldn't quite pull it off, sounding a little dejected. "There's a lot of reasons to not even _try _that" Which there was. The first and fore-most reason: she would say no. Well, that's actually the reason most guys don't ask out the girls they like, but it was still pretty important. How much would their friendship change? Lo might be totally weirded out by him liking her, she could completely avoid him, never talk to him again. Then he wouldn't even have her as a friend let alone as a girlfriend. And if thing did get awkward between them, would that change the group? The six groms were so tight, himself, Lo, Emma, reef, Fin, Johnny…would Lo leave if she couldn't stand even looking at him? (okay, so Broseph's being a _teensy_ bit melodramatic about the whole thing, but hey, he's legitimately worried! His imaginations going crazy, roll with it)

Kahuna just nodded, chilled, as Broseph seemed to have zoned out in front of him.

"Yeah, I see what you mean" Broseph blinked and snapped himself out of his own over-the-top thoughts of how badly the asking out Lo scenario could go.

"…you do?"

"Yeah, I mean there _are_ a tonne of reasons going out with Lo would be a bad idea" Broseph just arched an eyebrow.

"First of all, there's her dad. Completely over protective, ex army sergeant, who hasn't let her have a boyfriend _ever_"

Okay, Broseph hadn't thought about that one.

"-And there's the fact she's totally rich and your not. You wouldn't be able to get her fancy birthday or anniversary presents"

…Hadn't thought of that one either.

"-She couldn't introduce you to her other friends. Especially when you two go back to school, don't they all think you're a dirty beach-bum anyway?"

…another harsh but valid point.

"and she probably has a tonne of other guys after her, who are probably way more attractive and intelligent than you are. Not to mention cleane-"

"Okay, I get it Kahuna!"

Damn. And Broseph thought his own list of reasons was long. There was more to add to it apparently. Just as Broseph was about to lapse into another self-pity session, a shrill shriek broke out from across the deck, along with a chorus of gasps.

"Woah! Did that guy just punch that girl!"

"Dude ,that's not cool!"

"Was it a accident?"

"Oh my god! She's on the floor!"

"Hey, that's Lo! Is she okay!"

At the mention of Lo's name Broseph immediately snapped into action, a girl got punched? It was Lo! Who punched her? Was she ok? Seriously, who was the asshole who punched her? But more importantly, was she ok! A million thoughts were flashing through his mind as he pushed through the now crowding people. People who were as anxious as he was to know what was going on. Kahuna just shrugged as Broseph scooted off, looking around and taking a newly vacated seat as he relaxed and watched the drama around him. When Broseph managed to clamber his way to the front of the pack, he saw Lo sitting on the ground clutching the side of her face, a bemused look on her face, it obviously happened very quickly. A group of girls had swarmed around her to see if she was okay (It was as if girls had their own little support team, ready to take care of them, at every party! Wait, Broseph doesn't have time to wonder about these things, he needs to see if Lo's all right! Focus!")

"Lo" Broseph knelt down next to her, making room in the circle of girls surrounding her "are you all right?" concern showing in his voice.

"Ummm, does she _look_ all right? Okay, dumb question, but what else are you supposed to say in this situation! Well _sorry_ , completely random chick, forgive him for showing a little bit of well meant compassion. Jeez.

Lo waved a hand absentmindedly at the girl, and her smart-aleck comments "No, no, its alright, he's my friend, its cool" She was still a little spacey eyed and she held up her arms above her head like a little kid, complete with a sympathy grabbing pout "somebody help me up!" Broseph grabbed her hands and lifted her up to her feet in one swift movement, where she wobbled slightly before another girl steadied her, to avoid another collision to the floor.

Broseph immediately whipped his head around the room, scanning for any possible culprits "So where's the guy who punched you!" he said, ready to take some action.

"It was this guy!"

"Yeah , that's the one!"

"Jerk!"

"Hold him down, I've got pepper spray in my bag!"

"Woah , woah, can everybody just chill!" At the mention of pepper spray Ty put up his hands in defence and stepped back a bit, an anxious look on his face from the posse of girls closing in on him. He'd only realized he'd hit Lo when he saw her hit the ground, it happened way too fast, it took him a minute to realize what had even happened. Of course he immediately forgot about who he was actually _trying _to injure and bent down to see if Lo was ok, but he was quickly pushed away by those girls, who obviously saw him as the bad guy.

"Hey, we saw you hit that girl with our own eyes you jerk!" The same girl, who delivered the smart-ass comment to Broseph not a minute earlier, now had her hands on her hips and was yelling at Ty, which only managed to draw _more _attention to the situation.

"Yeah, you can't try and deny it you creep!"

"Are you her boyfriend? That's so disgusting! We should report you to the police as a women basher!"

"Ladies, ladies! _Please _calm down. You're getting ahead of yourselves!" Before the girls could start up again, Ty quickly followed up with the reassuring "First of all, she's my sister, and secondly-"

"So you hit your sister!"

"You'd turn against your own family!"

"That is so heinous!"

Broseph just rolled his eyes at the wound-up brat pack of girls, their shrill valley girl's accents giving him a headache. However, it did look like they were ready to clobber Ty's skull in with their shiny peep-toe stilettos, so he thought it best if he intervened (Ty wasn't exactly helping himself here). He let go of Lo and quickly stepped in-between Ty and the girl's raging path of destruction and shrill shrieking.

"I think what my friend _meant_ to say first of all-" He gave Ty a what-would-you-do-without-me-look "- is that the whole thing was an _accident…_okay? An accident" He said it firmly, like a pre-school teacher instructing all the kids to play nicely…though in this case the toddlers were arguing over a drunken assault on a girl at a house party instead of who's turn it was on the Elmo-phone. But it's generally the same thing.

"What do you mean it was an accident?" The girls had calmed down a little bit, but they weren't going to be re-assured just yet.

"Yeah, did your fist just happen to slip right into her face or something? There went miss smart aleck again.

"Well, kind off…but not really. I mean I-"

"It was because I didn't get him the scrubs box set!"

Wait. What?

Everyone turned to face a sobbing Lo, tears running down her face, along with her expensive mascara. She made little gasps for air in-between childish sobs. Everyone else just looked confused.

Ty could feel a headache coming on.

A few girls, the support group knew when they were needed, put their arms around Lo to comfort her and out on their little gentle cooing voices.

Broseph just turned to Ty with an eyebrow raised "…Dude, you hit her because she didn't get you the scrubs box set?"

"No! It _was_ an accident, I swear! It was just this stupid conversation earlier and- oh never mind! She's just drunk anyway" Ty was over this whole thing by now, he just came up here to get drinks! He should be scoring with Emma right now, not being put on trial! Broseph noticed Ty's frustrated aura and put his hand on his shoulder "Hey, you just go back to whatever you were doing, and do it quickly, before those girls can re-focus on you again. I'll look after Lo" Ty nodded and gave Broseph a small smile, trying to look as grateful as he felt, but still anxious to get out of there. As Ty slinked his way back through the throngs of people and across the dance floor, Broseph turned to Lo and the small huddle formed around her.

"Scuze' me ladies, but I think Lo needs to have a little sit down of some sort, calm herself down, y'know" Broseph put his hands on Lo's shoulders from behind and smiled at the girls.

"Oh, should we come too?"

"Yeah, she might need us for someth-"

"No! Nooo, were good , thanks" and before any of them could even try and speak up again, broseph practically wheeled Lo around, out of their grip, and dragged her with him through the crowd, thankful to get away. Lo still making little sobbing and sniffing sounds as she was pulled.

Meanwhile, while all this drama was going on outside, two groms were hanging in a quiet little bathroom. Fin was perched on the marble vanity, next to the sink and assorted bath bombs and expensive looking soaps. She picked one of the blue ones up. Red would obviously smell like cherry or something, but what the hell did blue smell like? Did blue have a smell? She sniffed it and recoiled. Okay, blue has a smell, and it smells gross. She checked the price tag attached to the un-open bath bomb next to it. Woah. Fin wondered about rich people and their spending habits sometimes. She flipped the round blue bath bomb up into the air and caught it again, her eyes wandering around the rest of the bathroom absentmidedly while she swung her legs back and forth. Ugh, they had monogrammed towels? Please, this isn't club med.

Fin flipped the ball up again in the air a few times before decided to ditch it at Reefs head.

"Ow!"

Reef turned around from the cupboard across the room, that he had busily been searching through, to glare at Fin. She shrugged and tried to look innocent.

"Wasn't me"

"Oh, ha ha" Reef dead panned as he closed the cupboards and moved across the room closer to Fin, who moved her hands up in defence, half expecting him to retaliate. Instead he just started ransacking another cupboard.

"What are you looking for anyway?"

"Ointment"

"Ointment?" Fin laughed, "Who uses the word 'ointment'?" Seriously, just say that word out loud, it sounds so wrong. "Your such a kook" she smiled teasingly.

"Well, whatever it's called then! The stuff you put on wounds!"

"A 'wound'?" Fin laughed even more " Stop being such a drama queen, it's, like, a tiny scrape! It's not even bleeding anymore. Just get me a bandaid"

"Hey, _I'm_ the doctor here, and _I_ prescribe the treatments, mmkay?"

"Pretty sure you just want to dote on me" Fin joked, cupping her hands to her face and fluttering her eyelashes, doing her best Shirley Temple impression.

Reef just laughed and shook his head as he pulled out a box from the very back of the cupboard "You and your mood swings are insane" He opened the box and grabbed an extra large bandaid out "One minute your slapping me upside the head-"

"Someone's gotta' keep you in line"

"-And then you go all friendly, acting cute, and start flirting with me" Reef smoothed over the bandaid on the 'wound' before getting up to look Fin in the eye.

"I think it was those shoes" she looked down at the discarded heels of satan where she'd thrown them down on the floor "the second they came off I just became a better person" Then she blinked and turned back to Reef , what he just said finally processing itself through her brain " wait a minute, I was _not_ just flirting with you"

"Ohhh, I'm pretty sure you were McCloud" Reef mimicked Fin, cupping his hands around his face and batting his eyelashes at her.

She grabbed another one of the expensive bath bombs and ditched it at his head again, but this time he was ready and Reef narrowly dodged it , laughing as it landed with a thud in the hot tub behind him. "Ooh, has the Reefsters own flirting skills rendered you so love struck you can't even aim right?" He then dodged another, then another and another, till Fin was out of bath bomb ammo "Oh! I think it has, I think I'm just that dreamy!". Both of them were laughing, Reef was almost on the floor and Fin couldn't help herself as she clutched at her sides.

"Shut it you Kook! I would never like you in a _million _years, you got that!"

"Oh , I think you do"

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do!"

"NO! I _don't!_"

"YES! You_ do!_"

"Nuh uh!"

"Yah huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Yah huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Yuh huh!"

"Yuh huh!"

"AH! There! You admitted it! You said 'yuh huh!" Reef did a little victory fist pump while Fin tried to bat at him, aiming for a slap up-side the head.

"Slip of the tongue kook! Don't get so excited" Fin rolled her eyes and tried not to smile at his antics.

Reef was partway through a small victory dance before he suddenly stopped, and pulled a very intense, serious face before he slammed down his hands on either side of Fin on the bathroom vanity, so she couldn't escape. Fin looked taken aback and just looked at him, bewildered and blushing, but not pushing him back. He met her gaze, and his eyes were intense, deeply looking into hers. Fin was barely breathing as Reef slowly leant his face down towards hers and their lips were only a few centimetres apart…

"…you totally thought I was gonna' kiss you, right?" Reef let a giant, tooth-bearing smile, spread across his face as he moved his hands and pulled back from her, laughing, his eyes glinting. Fin just looked at him in disbelief over the whole situation, her mouth gaping, and her brain not quite back to functioning properly.

"Oh my god… I hate you!"

Her voice echoed around the large bathroom, sounding angry and upset. Fin hopped down from the vanity counter, wincing as her sore foot hit the marble floors, while she pushed her way roughly past Reef and reaching for the door.

"Oh, c'mon Fin! It was a joke!"

"Well it wasn't a very funny joke!" Fin yanked open the door and stormed out. Well, it was more of a hobble, her ankle was really hurting, but you get the idea. She was pissed. Real pissed.

Reef quickly followed her out " I didn't _mean_ to upset you!"

"I am _not _upset! I could care less! You're just such a _kook_ and I can't stand dealing with you sometimes!" Fin had stopped and turned around to glare daggers at Reef, a fierce blush on her face.

Oh, and while you try and visualize _just_ how homicidal Fin looked right now, as well as just how _fearful_ reef was looking at the same time. Try and remember back a chapter or two to the time I mentioned that ugly, yet expensive and _delicate_, vase that was located in the very same corridor Fin and Reef were standing in right now. This is a good time to try and remember that vase. Don't worry, I can wait a minute for you to flick back and re-read that part, I can wait.

…..You done yet? Good, lets get back to the story.

"You're overreacting, Its not a big deal!"

"Shut up! I'll react however I want!

And with that great comeback thrown out there, Fin spun around, not particularly looking where she was going (and you can guess where this is going right?)

"Fin, watch out for th-" 

"I _said _shut u-AAH!"

For some of the _slower_ readers out there, let me elaborate. Fin, in her blind rage, had stormed around a little too vigorously, and by chance, she happened to be right next to that expensive, horribly designed, glass vase. She knocked right into the small wooden stand it had been resting on. And as she toppled down onto the floor with it, the vase went flying off into the air and Fin and Reef could only wince as the glass monstrosity came sailing down and shattered into a million tiny pieces with a crash, as it hit the hard floor.

"…. Oh…crap"

"…I'm so busted, aren't I?"

"Pretty much"

"That looked like it cost a lot"

"Most likely"

"Her parents will be so mad"

"I'm guessing more along the lines of homicidal"

"…Run away?"

"Good idea"

**Ooooh dear, they're in trouble! Aaand it looks like I might be in trouble as well, with **_**you guys**_** that is! I hope your not too mad Emma didn't get a part in this chapter, or that a kiss didn't actually happen between Reef and Fin (seriously, I'd be so pissed if a guy I had a crush on did that to me, because we all know she **_**does**_** like him really ahaha) and I got Lo punched! And where did Lance slink off to when that was all going on? Hmmm. Also, Brittany and her crones are lying Low for now, but something tells me they might be ready to strike next chapter…wait, what am I saying? I totally **_**know**_** something's gonna' happen, because **_**I'm**_** the one who will be writing it! Oh I'm so wicked, hehe.**


	7. Dude, are you having a flashback?

**So sorry for the wait guys! My computer decided to commit sudden suicide, and I actually had to wait until I got a new one to be able to upload this! Urgh, so annoying. But hey, its here now! And if you read the chapter title, yes, unfortunately its mostly a flashback. I think I'm going to need to write some very long Reefin moments next chapter to be forgiven, yes?**

Ty ran his fingers through his hair as he pushed his way through the crowd. Well, pushed probably isn't the right word. More like glared his way through the crowd, that's a more appropriate way to put it. People were parting like the red sea as he approached them, the foul look on his face encouraging everyone to just stay the hell out of his way. What was Lances problem? They were friends for crying out loud! They surfed every day together, hung out at the beach…where did the whole 'I think I'll decide to be a complete ass today!' attitude come from? Ty let out a small, frustrated, sigh. The night had started out so well too. He just wanted to fetch Emma a few drinks, come back, and hook up with her in a back room somewhere, simple plan. He didn't want to have to deal with some asshole (Possible _former_ friend) who wanted to get his sister a few drinks and hook up with her in the…woah,wait a minute.

Do you see what I see? Ty's game plan for the night is sounding _awfully_ similar to Lances own dastardly plan…am I the only one seeing this? Of course not, Ty seemed to be thinking along those lines too. He quickly dismissed that thought though, laughing it off slightly. Of course he wasn't like Lance! No, not at all!

Well, maybe a little.

Sure, they were both aiming to score a bit of action tonight, what guy doesn't at a party! However, Lance was only going to achieve that through copious amounts of alcohol at his assistance. Ty was planning to rely on his natural charm and good looks…and only a _little _bit of alcohol. (Speaking of which, he really did need to find some drinks somewhere…)

Besides! Emma was totally into him anyway! He wouldn't trick her into bed, like Lance would .No, Ty was only comfortable with lying to a girl and pretending he was completely smitten with her, to _then_ get her into bed. Totally not as bad!

…Okay, when you say it like that it does sound pretty bad. Reeeal bad in fact,… But at least she isn't his friends' sister! That counts for something right? Ty does have a little class when it comes to these things.

Before Ty could think about this troubling topic anymore (read: justify his sleaziness), he bumped into something right in front of him, zoning out while walking in a crowded party isn't a thing I'd recommend by the way. Jolted out of his own thoughts, Ty looked down and saw that what he bumped into turned out to be a person. A familiar person in fact. With a flick of blonde hair and sharp glimpse of ultra-white teeth, that person revealed themselves to be none other than Brittany, our _charming_ host.

"Oh, hey Ty! What a coincidence it was bumping into you!" She said, in her sugary sweet voice.

Pfft coincidence my ass. That girl had been trying to 'bump' into him for the last ten minutes. She stood there batting her eyelashes, fake ones of course, like she was trying to swat away a few flies, with her trademark tic-tac-commercial-worthy smile in place. The one she brought out whenever Ty was within a ten metre radius_. _The harpy had one manicured hand on her hip, which was jutting out pretty severely in a very well practised pose, and she held two bottles of Smirnoff Ice in the other.

"I've been on the D-floor all night! I so wish you would've danced with me, where have you been all this time!" She smiled flirtatiously as she leant closer to him, putting on a fake pout and silly little soppy voice. Ty could smell her strong, sickeningly sweet, bubblegum scented perfume and resisted the urge to pull back a little bit.

"Trust me, you don't wanna know what I've been doing all night" Ty said, with barely a trace of humour in his voice "it has _not_ been fun"

Turns out Brittany had been to busy on the aforementioned 'D-floor' to notice Lo's Jersey-shore-esque knockout earlier. Shame, she probably would've enjoyed that. So when she heard those words leave Ty's mouth, she instantly assumed that he was talking about his conversations with Emma, since that's where she saw him last. This thought, that Ty was absolutely hating his time with Emma, made a smile creep its way back onto Brittany's face. This smile was a far cry from the blinding Tic-Tac smile we saw just a second before, and was more reminiscent of Cruella deville before she was about to skin all those Dalmatian puppies to make a fashion statement. Funnily enough, that's the most genuine smile the girls had in the last week.

"Aww, well that's too bad" She said, trying to suppress the urge to whoop for joy right then and there. "I know what'll cheer you up" Brittany held up the two drinks she had in her hand and offered one to Ty "Some drinks!". Ty liked sitting around with that redheaded girl drinking? Well Brittany would bet money that he would like sitting around drinking with here much, _much _more.

If that had been a real bet, she just lost her money.

Ty smiled in surprise "Oh my god, this is _exactly_ what I need right now!" Brittany was just about to let a victory smile spread across her face, before Ty swiped _both_ drinks from her hands. "I've been looking for drinks for me and Emma everywhere, thanks so much! You just saved me so much trouble" He smiled again, before strutting off, not believing his luck! Good thing Brittany was around, he'd always thought she was a nice girl.

God, this boy is so oblivious it's painful.

Brittany was obviously thinking the same thing, as she stood rigid, her lips strained in a tight smile as she blinked a few times in disbelief. How did he not register the fact she had gotten those drinks for him _and_ her to have _together!_ I mean honestly, why did he have to make this so difficult! She was Brittany Davis for gods' sake; she could have half the boys at this party at her command with just a wink in their direction! But point being that she didn't _want_ any of those losers, who just looked like mediocre trash compared to Ty. Ever since Brittany had seen him, she knew he was the guy she wanted as her boyfriend. He was cool, he could surf, killer tan, a smile that made you melt, those dreamy eyes, abs you could grate cheese on…okay, snap out of it Brittany, lets focus and get back to what we were talking about. So yeah, Brittany wanted Ty pretty damn badly. And when Brittany wanted something, she wouldn't stop until she got it. Got it?

So now this stupid, obnoxious, green-dress wearing, low life, surfer troll (a.k.a our sweet little Emma) was totally stealing Ty's attention. Attention that he _should_ be focusing on her, Brittany!

"Um, Brittany…" An apprehensive looking Chelsea had wandered over to her friend once she saw Ty leave, an even more nervous Tammy trailing a few feet behind her. A few years of being Brittany's friend had taught them to be wary whenever Brittany looked even a little angry, and right now she looked like she would viciously maim the next person to even look her in the eye. "Are you alri-"

"I'M FINE! Just fine! _Nothings _wrong, I'm just _fucking peachy_!"

Brittany exploded out of her silence and barged her way past Chelsea, while Tammy quickly scrambled to the side to make way for the fuming blonde. Both girls looked each other, having a brief telepathic conversation. Tammy widened her eyes; looking exasperated. _Do we have to go after her this time?_ Chelsea nodded her head with a tight smile. _Well, we always do soo…_. Tammy rolled her eyes. _Yeah I know! She ends up doing this at nearly every party we go to! Just because Ty doesn't pay her enough attention, I'm so over it! _Chelsea just shrugged. _And what else are we supposed to do? Make her mad at us aswell? I don't want hurricane Brittany after me, do you?_ With a final slump of her shoulders, Tammy seemed to resign to the fact that they had to go after their dear friend Brittany. Again.

They found her moping over near the buffet size snack table, munching on a bread stick. I don't know how the girl managed to look so threatening while munching on that bread stick, but she did. Tammy came over next to her, Chelsea close behind "Heeey" she started warily "What happened?". Brittany took another fierce chomp out of the bread stick.

"Ty being an oblivious _idiot_ is what happened!" she spat out angrily, spraying a few crumbs everywhere while she did so. "That, and there's this stupid red-haired chick-"

"The one that came with Lo?"

"Yeah, that one! Well she just thinks she's totally all that and whatever…and now she's stolen Ty for the whole night! He doesn't even like her, he even told me that! He said he's been having an awful night…" Brittany was scowling and her voice was getting louder as she spoke.

"Why does he even spend time with those cheap sluts! I don't get it! They'll never like him as much as I do! I would be the best girlfriend…why can't he stop being such an idiot for one second and see that!" Brittany was on the verge of tears as she bit her lip angrily. Chelsea stepped forward and put her arm around Brittany, however annoying it was to deal with what she'd dubbed as a 'Ty-tantrum', she knew it was only because Brittany _had _been head-over-heels for Ty for what seemed like forever. And ever since that first time, over at the penthouse, he'd never really payed her much attention after that night. She didn't understand why Brittany just didn't give up on Ty, but the girl was just crazy in love I guess.

It brought her back to that fight. The one between Brittany and Lo, all the way back in middle school.

_The three girls were sitting at their usual lunch table in the school cafeteria. Tammy was eating her moms home made friend rice out of its little plastic container, Chelsea had a plain old cafeteria slice of pizza and Lo had gourmet sushi that had been prepared by the Ridgemounts personal chef. While Tammy and Chelsea were both tucking into their food, Lo sat there struggling with a pair of chopsticks, intent on eating her sushi with them, but failing miserably as each piece would fall back onto her plate before she would even get it half way to her mouth. Chelsea snorted with laughter when Lo finally managed to get some food in her mouth, and then let half of it dangle out precariously with bits of rice falling everywhere and a piece of tuna stuck itself to Lo's chin. Chelsea tried not to spray pizza crumbs everywhere as she stifled her laughter._

_Lo pouted, sticking out her tongue to slurp up the rogue bit of fish."Hey, don't just sit there laughing at me! Give me some help! Tammy, your Asian, give me some pointers!"_

"_As if! This is way too funny" Chelsea smiled as Lo pouted._

"_You suck!" Lo said, wiping the bit of tuna off her chin and flinging at Tammy, while Chelsea just laughed harder._

"_Well I might just sit somewhere else if Lo's in a tuna-flinging mood" Brittany smiled at her friends as she put down her cafeteria tray and slid into her seat._

"_Whats'sup Britts!" Lo greeted cheerfully "and don't worry, only mean Asian girls who don't teach me chop stick techniques are getting tuna thrown at them today" and the three girls erupted into giggles again._

_Before Lo took another attempt at the sushi, Brittany rapped her hands on the lunch table excitedly, gaining all the girls attentions. "Okay, guess what" She said, suspensefully._

"_You actually passed a maths test today?"_

"_Shuttup Tammy , or I will join Lo in flinging tuna at you. But seriously, big news!"_

"_You managed to pass a history test today?"_

"_The joke Wasnt funny the first time Tammy, and its not funny now"_

"_Tell us already!" Chelsea egged on._

"_Well" Brittany started "You know how I have that crush on Ty?"_

_Oh did they ever._

_Lo's smile tightened, she should have guessed this had something to do with her brother if Brittany was getting this excited. She'd had a problem with her friends' silly crush as soon as it started, and she'd mentioned this to Brittany often in fact! Especially since it seemed Brittany had been paying more attention to Ty than to her recently.' Oh, Ty's not very into dating girls at the moment' ' He has really bad breath so you definatly would not want to kiss him, let alone go out with him!'I totally think he's gay Brittany! Gayer than a sunny day in may!' But every lame reason Lo came up with to stop Brittany and her conquest of Love failed. Eventually she'd just stopped trying to deter her, hoping it would just die out over time. Her brother didn't seem so interested in her so Lo hadn't worried too much. So Lo just sat there and poked her sushi with a chopstick, and listened to her friend half heartedly._

"_Yeah, yeah, he's like all you ever talk about recently!" Chelsea teased lightly. Brittany blushed before she breathed in dramatically for her big announcement._

"_I'm going to ask him out!"_

"_What!"_

" _I know right! I know it must seem totally random or whatever, but I've actually known for, like, ages that he's liked me. So now im just going to be all assertive and ask him my self , y'know!"_

_Before either Tammy or Chelsea could start squealing in a way only a group of teen girls can, Lo had sharply interrupted, stabbing a chopstick into her sushi in horror. The girls all turned to look at Lo._

"_...Lo? What's wrong?" Brittany said, her excited smile gone._

_Lo just looked at her as if she'd grown a third head " Brittany… are you being serious right now?"_

_Brittany smiled apprenhensivly " Ummm, yeeah?"_

"_So, your not joking...like, at all?"_

_Brittany let out a huff of indignation"Of course I'm being serious!" She said defensively "I wouldn't joke about this! Ty is ,like, my soulmate!"_

_Lo internally rolled her eyes, but on the outside just smiled awkwardly as she looked over at Tammy, who then looked over at Chelsea, who then looked awkwardly back at Lo, who turned back to Brittany once again, who was still looking at Lo wondering what she was on about._

"_It's just that..." she started carefully "…I…don't think Ty likes you that way…you know?" Brittany obviously didn't know. Lo winced as she saw her friends face fall. Lo knew her brother and the way he treated all the girls he dated. Ignoring Brittany's infatuation was fine, when it seemed like there was zero chance of anything happening,but now the alarm bells were ringing and Lo knew Brittany was just setting herself up to get her heart broken. Lo couldn't let that happen to a friend._

_The whole table was silent, each girl waiting for Brittany to say something back._

"_Yeah, well…I don't even know why you would say that…" She said, her voice sounding hurt, but she turned to look Lo dead in the eyes "…But your wrong"_

_Lo did a bit of a double take at that , but pressed her point a little further, in case Brittany hadnt quite got it the first time. " Ummm, Brittany, I know you like my brother and all…but seriously, I don't think asking him out is a good idea" again, trying to deliver this line gently. She knew about Brittany's rash temper and how it could flare up at any second._

"_Well, actually, I think it's a good idea and I know he likes me back, sooo I don't see how it's any of your business? And I don't even know why you're being so rude either" Brittany said this quietly in her usual sugary sweet voice, but with a large amount of attitude so obviously evident as she flipped her hair._

"_Not any of my business?" Okay, a lot of the softness had gone from Lo's voice now. Even if she was trying to protect her friend, you still didn't talk back to a Ridgemount in that tone of voice and get away with it. "He's my brother if you haven't forgotten. And I'm not being rude I'm being honest!"_

_Chelsea and Tammy exchanged worried glances from across the table as Lo and Brittanys tones changed, and the atmosphere got a lot tenser. _

"_Yeah, so what if he's your brother! I like him and I know for a fact that he likes me back!" Brittany folded her arms and stared back confidently at Lo, who was looking back in disbelief. Were they really even having this conversation?_

"_Oh right, and what makes you think that then?" Lo said , half laughing at how absurd she thought Brittany was being._

"_Oh, I don't know.." Brittany started sarcastically "maybe it was because we totally slept together last month!"_

…_Oh, snap._

_Well this conversation has taken a pretty dramatic turn. Weren't they talking about tuna, like, five minutes ago? Ah, teenage girls for you._

_All three girls jaws practically hit the floor as Brittany dropped this bombshell. She flipped her hair angrily, blushing slightly. She had just revealed her big secret in the heat of the moment, although she had been dieing to tell someone all this time. Due to the girls slightly raised voices, and the cafeteria being packed that day, a few kids from surrounding tables had heard the words 'slept' and 'together' used in the same sentence, simultaniously being mentioned by one of the most popular girls in school and in a dramatic way,so they had decided to swivel around in their chairs to stare and listen in. This is the kind of drama high schools thrive on people._

_Chelsea had her hand over her mouth in shock and Tammy still hadn't closed her gaping mouth "Oh my god, Brittany, is that true! Like, when? And how!" so many questions were going through her head but these were the few that managed to stumble their way out._

_Brittany tried not to look as flustered as she felt "Of course its true! Last month when I slept over at Lo's…" she flipped her hair over her shoulder, a bad habit of hers "So I know he likes me, and that's why I'm going to ask him out and I know he'll say yes!"_

"_Why would you even do that!"_

_Lo finally found her voice, and it was loud and cracked slightly. She was scowling at Brittany. The last time Brittany had been over at her for a sleepover...it could've been months ago! If this was true, one of her best friends had gone behind her back and had been lieing to her this whole time! Okay, no. Wait a minute, Lo said to herself. This couldn't be true. It just couldn't be. Brittany's just being over dramatic or she's joking or something. _

"_Hey, don't make it sound like it had anything to do with you okay! I did it because I'm totally in love with Ty and he loves me back! Not everything revolves around you Lo!"_

_Okay, that one stung. To think that your best friend, as well as your own brother, did something this big without even considering your feelings at all? _

_Lo was about to yell something right back at her in retort, but Brittany had said that with such a confidence to her voice that it couldn't help but shake Lo a little bit. Instead, she stopped herself. Lo angrily got up from her chair, the legs making a horrible screeching sound as they scraped against the tiled floor, as she stormed her way across the cafeteria. Brittany gaped, confused at what Lo was pulling right now…until she saw that Lo was headed straight towards the back tables of the lunch room, where the older kids sat. Or to be specific, where Ty sat._

"_Oh my god! She's going to go ask Ty!" Chelsea gasped. All this drama was making her nervous and excited at the same time. It was like a really good episode of Degrassi junior high, which by the way is her favourite show._

"_Well, no shit Chelsea!" Brittany snapped rudely at her before she herself went dashing after Lo, closely followed by Tammy who was just as eager to see the drama unfold. Chelsea quickly stuffed her last slice of Pizza into her mouth before following._

_Ty laughed along with his friends as one of the guys told a crude joke "-and then the Irishman says to the blonde ' I have a step ladder right here!'" . The table erupted with more laughter as the punchline was delivered. He'd have to remember that one, that was a good joke. Ty was still chuckling quietly as he grabbed another handful of French fries and stuffed them in his mouth, with about as much poise and finesse as a ...well, I cant actually think of any analogies, so I'll just say he ate like most teenage boys do._

_However, he was quickly jolted out of enjoying the salty goodness of the fries as Lo's hands slammed down onto the cafeteria table in front of him. He paused and looked up at her wide eyed. What was it now? Had he accidentally scratched her backstreet boys CD again? Because hat was the last thing that caused one of her dramatic hand-slamms. Yes, it happened so frequently, it had its own name. Ty almost smiled as he was looking at her, while the rest of the guys at the table were just looking at each other wondering what was going on. I mean a crowd had followed Lo here and theie one table was now surrounded by on-lookers, as well as half the cafeteria craning their necks to see what was going on too._

"_What is it this time L-"_

"_DID YOU SLEEP WITH MY BEST FRIEND!"_

…_.._

…_.._

…_..._

…_..._

…_..._

_See that?_

_That's the awkward silence that followed Lo's dramatic outburst. Just about every single person in that whole cafeteria was silent. Lo just stood there ridgidly, staring down Ty, who sat there mortified and unblinking. _

_He had not expected that one. Ty laughed nervously "Lo, what are you on about, I didn't ...I mean, ..not that I did...um..so much as too...ugh...do we have to do this here?" He said desperately trying to avoid all the stares directed his way._

"_Well, is it true then? Because that's what Brittany's been telling every body" Lo said coldly, folding her arms._

_Ty looked up at his sister, then over at his friends circled around the table, then at everybody else in the lunch room and finally to Brittany. "Well...yeah" He tried to admit in a cool, play-boy kinda way. Like he totally had sex with girls all the time and it was no big deal. Which at this point, he didnt. Of course, he couldn't quite look Lo in the eye right now._

_At that moment, while a few members of the crowd were ooo'ing and aaah'ing over Tys confirmation of the dramatic events and a couple wolf whistled too, Brittany managed step up from the crowd and she flounced over to Ty, not even looking at her as she draped herself over the still sitting Ty._

"_See Lo?" She smiled victoriously, arms around Ty's neck as he continued looking everywhere that wasn't his sister. " And now, were totally going out-"_

"_We are?"_

"_- and I would think a good person would be happy for their best friend and brothers new found happiness together, don't you think?" Brittany said snappily._

"_No ,seriously, were going out now? Really?"_

"_Honestly Lo, you should really learn to be a little less selfish sometimes" and with that ,Brittany decided to completely twist the knife she'd just metaphorically plundged into Lo, and planted a kiss on Ty's unsuspecting lips. _

_Lo made a big show of rolling her eyes in front of everyone, but this was really only to stop the tears she felt coming on. When Brittany finally pulled apart from her brother, who wasn't quite sure Wether he just got a girlfriend or not, he just shrugged. Why argue with the girl currently lip-locking it with you? At that Lo just threw up her hands at the two "Whatever. As if I even care anyway. Do what you want..." Lo left the cafeteria as the buzz of students chatter sprung to life again. I'm sure for most of the people who witnessed that dramatic confrontation, talked about it for about a day, and forgot about it a week later. To them it wasn't a big deal. Just the new school gossip. But to a couple of people, that event changed a lot of things._

_**Soooo Lo and Brittany's back story has been revealed. Now you know why they hate each other so much, and why Lo's so reluctant to let Ty get to Emma perhaps? Also I think its a little sad how Brittany really is genuinely in love/obsessed with Ty...but not too sad since she is a bitch. And I know not much else happened in this chapter, but it creates some context at least.**_


	8. Dude, look behind you!

**Mmmmmm new chapter! Yum! but don't get too excited because I updated quite quickly...I wont be able to put up another chapter for a few weeks. Check the authors note at the bottom of the page for more details. But for now, read and enjoy my lovelies!**

Emma sat back on the deckchair and twitched her feet impatiently. How long did it take a guy to get drinks? She'd been sitting in the same spot Ty had left her in for around the last fifteen minutes or so...no, wait, make that twenty minutes. Emma sighed as she watched the digital clock on her cell phone screen. The pool area had gradually filled up from earlier, a few groups of people lingering around the side and scattered on deckchairs, a few random couples taking advantage of the more private area to grab a quick, drunken, make-out session. Something Emma totally enjoyed having to watch . Emma glanced over to watch one of the clusters of people closest to her ,to avoid having to awkwardly watch some sloppy hookup taking place about three metres away from her. There was nine of them, all sitting round on the chairs they'd pulled up to form a nice circle. They all sat their laughing every two minutes, the good looking guys downing their drinks, the girls ,who were gorgeous, in they're cute dresses and shoes. Dresses and shoes they probably didn't even have to borrow from a friend...they looked like they were having so much fun. Emma's mouth tightened as she watched them erupt into another bout of laughter, what had happened to her friends? Fin and Reef had gone off to that beer-pong game or something, and she hadn't seen them anywhere since. She remembered seeing Broseph as he walked past on the deck above her, she'd waved but he hadn't noticed And earlier she thought she'd heard a familiar high pitched squealing that could have been Lo. Part of Emma's brain was telling her she was being stupid just sitting here waiting for some guy and that she should go find someone and actually have fun at this party! But then there was that other part , the section of her brain that was almost completely filled with thoughts about Ty. How nice his smile was, the way he had asked her to sit here with him, how he totally loved the same bands as her. She couldn't just leave! He'd just gone to get drinks and had asked her to wait, it'd be so rude to leave! And Emma the thought that he might have ditched her, Ty totally wouldn't do that. He was far too cool, and considerate and her absolute perfect prince in shining armour... Oh, just thinking about him made her want to squeal out loud again! Emma blinked herself out of her thoughts , just as she locked eyes with one of the girls from the group she'd been staring at a minute ago. The girl smirked and gave a little wave. Oh crap! Honestly, did she _have_ to space out _while_ looking over at a group of some of the coolest looking people in the general area? The gods of Karma couldn't have let the space out happen while she was looking at, say, that pot plant over there? Because she would appreciate that as a far less embarrassing scenario. Emma blushed fiercely as she quickly whipped her head around and dug out her cell phone. That's right Emma , just look at your phone as if you just got a message, convince them your not a complete spaz who sits alone and stares at people at parties, make them think you totally have friends who want to message you! She heard them laughing again and she hoped it was because someone told a funny joke, you know, instead of them totally laughing at _her..._ which was probably much more likely.

Just as Emma was seriously considering getting up and leaving due to the utter humiliation she just endured, the phone she'd been absent-mindedly 'texting on actually started ringing for real.

"Hello?" she answered automatically, not checking caller ID first.

"_bzzzzt _I _bzzzt_ AM ON _bzzt _THE _bzzzt_ WHALE BUS!"

Emma jumped slightly and held the phone further away from her ear as the voice screamed at her.

"What? Is that you Johnny?"

"YES! _bzzzzzzt_AND I'M ON THE _bzzzt_ -ALE BUS!"

Even though she could hear him practically screaming down the end of the line, his voice sounded distant and kept fading in and out, with the occasional static making an interlude. It sounded like a fighter jet making an S.O.S call.

"What? What are you doing on the whale bus?Are you calling while your driving?" Emma sat up on the deck chair as she tried to make some sense out of what Johnny was saying.

"I _bzzzt_ NEED TO GET TO THAT_bzzzzt PARTY bzzt _WONT_ bzt _LET YOU HAVE ALL bzzzzt THE FUN!"

Emma blinked a few times as the line went dead. The guy sounded possessed. Like a man on a mission. Right there and then, she mentally noted that Johnny should be invited to every party they go to in the future.

It was around this same moment that a betty and a kook were making a daring escape attempt out a first storey window. Having broken the expensive, yet inconveniently placed, vase, Reef and Fin had legged it down the hall (well, limped as fast as she could in Fins case) looking for the closest exit. Turns out it was a dead end with only a set of stairs greeting them as they turned the corner, and they knew the couldn't use the front door due to those thug-like bouncers still guarding the entrance. The entrance they weren't even supposed to have come in anyway. So yes, the window was the best option.

"You go first"

"Oh, yeah Reef, 'cause jumping down five feet from a window ledge is easy when you've got an injured foot. _You_ go first , kook!" Fin snarked as she punched Reef on the shoulder for being such an idiot. That, and she'd take any excuse to physically hurt the guy right now.

"Okay, okay! No need to get violent, jeez.." Reef mumbled as jammed open the window pane and slid it up, making a less than impressive sized gap.

"Your fat head wouldn't fit through that, let alone the rest of you" Fin added helpfully.

"Well thanks for that lovely comment, but we don't exactly have a lot of options right now do we?" Reef swiftly hoisted his front half out the window, sliding over the window ledge on his front,his arms and head now flapping around in the open air. Proving that, yes, his fat head did actually fit through. Just.

"Now that I think about it-" Fin pondered while glaring at the parts of Reef that still remained in the building, and that basically means his ass. "We could just walk around the back and hop over the fence again, y'know, the way we came in?" She said, pointing out the obvious.

"...well I'm already half out the window, so lets just stick with the choice we made, alright?" Reef dead panned as he tried to slide the rest of himself out the window. Unfortunately, all that working out to impress the Betties had left Reef with some considerable bulk in his upper torso. Well of course this bulk had always been considered a good thing,by Reef himself and by a lot of the females at surfers paradise resort if you know what I mean, but right now it looked like karma had decided to turn on Reef and his well toned physique.

"Okay. I'm stuck"

"Oh for gods sake! Its not exactly mission impossible! Hauling your ass out a window shouldn't be so hard!"

"Hey! I cant help it if I have some well defined pecs and killer guns, okay!" Reef defended himself. He couldn't turn around to face Fin, due to him dangling face-first towards a five foot drop into someone's bushes, but he yelled back over his shoulder.

Fin had to clench her jaw, silently counting to ten,to stop herself from running off to grab yet another priceless antique, just so she could use it to injure the kook with the 'killer guns' somehow. Honestly, the last vase was wasted on that floor, it would be so much more worth it if she'd broken it over Reefs head. Suppressing her rage, Fin quickly limped over to check around the corner, seeing if anyone had noticed them, or the crash, or the yelling. Good thing the music was loud. Looked clear for now.

"Fin?" Reef called out after a minute of silence. "Are you still ther-OW!" Reef yelled in surprised pain as he felt a foot collide with his ass.

"Yeah, I'm still here" Fin couldn't help grinning as she repeatedly slammed her foot into Reef , each time wedging him a bit more through the window. "Just giving you a little help!"

"OW!OW! OW!" Reef felt himself leaning over further and further and desperately tried to grip the sides of the wall "Hey,I thought you hurt your foot!"

"Well, I didn't hurt the one with good aim!" she replied, delivering a final blow that sent Reef completely through the window in one smooth movement. Fin smiled as she heard a satisfying yelp and a thud as he hit the ground.

Reef rolled himself out of the Ridgemounts hedge arrangement, a few stray leaves and twigs clinging to him, as well as a good share of dirt. He stood up and cricked his neck, wiping the muck off his shirt and pants. "Well, that was kind of rude" He said sarcastically, glaring up at Fin.

"Considering how absolutely charming _you've_ been tonight, just be thankful I decided to let you stay concious" Fin had already started getting up on the window ledge herself, decided to do the smart thing and _not_ go head first. She winced as she accidentally put too much pressure on her inured foot.

Reef heard it and almost out of instinct- "You alright? Here, I'll help you get down" He said it while offering out his hand above him to Fin, completely ignoring the fact that he should still be mad at her for pushing him out a window, and she wouldn't exactly want to take his hand right now anyway. Either the guys little brain had already forgotten both these little facts, or the much more likely option, he couldn't help but care either way. Aww, what a sweethear-

"No! Thanks, I got it" Fin said coldly.

Okay, nevermind.

Fin was obviously still pissed about the bathroom incident, and I mean who wouldn't be! The stupid jerk, leading her on like that, making her think he was finally going to kiss her...wait, finally? No, that just came out wrong! No ,no it wasn't as if she had been _waiting_ for this kiss or anything. Ha, don't be silly! I mean its not like she actually wanted him to lean in just that extra inch... Okay, getting off topic! Who did he think she was anyway? Some helpless damsel in distress? Some wimpy little girly girl ? A delicate princess? Lo! Ugh, no! She was Fin!It was a five foot drop for gods sake, and Fin didn't need any help and especially not his! Fin started to drop one leg over the edge of the window, her back facing Fin. Of course , it was around this point, Fin started to realise that dropping out of a window in a tiny mini dress would prove hard if you didn't want to flash at all.

"Turn around!"

Reef pulled a face "What?"

"You heard me!" Fin said impatiently, one leg still hanging over the window sill "Turn around!"

Reef whipped his head over his shoulder " Why, is there someone behind me?"

"Ugh, no you kook!" Fin rolled her eyes "I just don't want this ridiculously short dress to reveal anything that should stay UN-revealed, okay!"

"Oooooh I getcha, but seriously, even if I do see your undies, is that any worse than seeing you in bikini bottoms? Since I see that lovely view everyday" Reef smiled cockily, knowing he'll probably pay for this as soon as she got down from that ledge.

"So unless you have on an old embarrassing tweety bird pair from when you were twelve on, or something" Fin just glared at him homicidally . Reef waited a few seconds in the silence before a sly grin slid itself over his face "Oh, wait. Okay, I finally got it" He said as he turned around like Fin had asked "Go ahead"

Fin paused and raised an eyebrow. Sure he'd done what she asked, but what was he on about? "Why the sudden change in attitude?" She said curiously, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Reef still didn't turn around and threw his hands up as he faced away from her "Its cool Fin, its cool! A lot of girls don't wear panties these days-"

"OH MY GOD!" Fin yelled in shock and disgust "Of _course_ I wear panties you ass! God, you are such a perv sometimes, don't be so sick minded, and disgusting, and lewd and ..and..disgusting!" She was blushing furiously as she started to scramble her way off the ledge, not even caring if Reef did see her dress flip up, she half hoped it would, just to prove to him that she actually _did_ have a pair of undies on! Reef turned around as Fin kept muttering under her breath about how much of a thick-headed ass, he was, When suddenly Fin seemed to have lost her grip on the ledge. Before she could even let out a yelp of surprise as she felt her fingers slipping, Reef had already rushed over , planning to catch her mid air, but instead ended up being used as some sort of landing mattress. Fin crashed down on top of him, both of them letting out gasps of pain as Fins ankle once again twisted itself at angles it shouldn't, and Reef collided with the ground for the second time in the last half hour.

"Ow" Reef dead panned, his voice muffled, face still planted into the ground.

"Craaap, that hurts!" Fin clutched at her ankle as she sat up, still on top of Reef. "Seriously, how much abuse can one ankle take?"

"So, um, I sympathise and all-" Reef started, having gotten his face out of the dirt "But do you, maybe, want to get off me now?" He suggested.

"I was gonna!" Fin said maturely.

"So...today would be nice?"

"Hey, don't use that tone of voice with me!" Fin said maturely. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way this time, she actually did make herself sound like someone's mom.

Without apologising, Fin used the wall to help pull herself up of of Reef, then leaning against it to take the weight off her foot. Reef watched her. As soon as she was standing Reef himself jumped up, brushing dirt off his front for the second time. At least he hadn't managed to hurt himself, luckily Fin was pretty light anyway. Fin was still leaning against the wall of the house, her arms folded and a pout on her face. She would of looked cute, if she didn't have a death glare plastered over her face that is.

Reef threw up his hands "what! What are you pissed about now! What else has just happened to piss you off!" He yelled, Fins attitude finally seeming to get to him. "I tried to help you just now!"

"Oh yeah, and that worked out well! We both ended up stacking it to the ground! Great help that was" Fin yelled back. Reef had no right to be the angry one here.

"Well if you'd let me help you before, instead of being all 'miss independent' or whatever, _maybe _neither of us would've fell, but no, you just couldn't stand being helped by me, could you!"

Okay, maybe he had a point there, but as if Fin would admit that right now! " Yeah, well at least I was smart enough not to go head first!" So she just made another jab about him being a dumbass, there wasn't really a point to it, Fin just felt like it needed to be said.

Reef pulled a face " what? How has that got _anything_ to with _anything_! I wouldn't even have to escape through a window if someone hadn't watched where they were going and broken a damn vase!" He pointed at Fin angrily.

"It was an accident, it wasn't as if I meant to break it!" Fin gaped at him "Besides, maybe I would _watched where I was going_ if you hadn't made me so pissed off in the first place!"

"And now where back where we started! You being pissed off! That's all you've been allll night isn't it? Since the shoes, since the car ride-" Reef started counting things off on his fingers, walking closer to Fin "Since the beer-pong incident, since I _helped _you in the bathroom-"

Fin lashed out and gave Reef a hard slap on his chest as he got closer to her "Oh yeah, cause' that's all you did in there wasn't it!"

"Oh, yeah, I remember now-" Reef cocked his head to the side in a mocking way "-the JOKE!" He stepped closer to Fin again, who was glaring down at the ground "It was a joke! Seriously, a damn joke!"

Fin shoved hard against his chest, trying to push Reef as far away as she could, and he stumbled back a couple of steps "Well it wasn't very _fucking_ funny!"

Reef managed to stop himself falling backwards just in time. He looked up and was about to shout something right back at Fin, but he stopped himself. She was crying. Not great big sobs, no gushes of tears running down her cheeks, she wasn't even whimpering softly. There were only a few tears that prickled at the corners of her eyes, and her lips were quivering in that stupid way you just couldn't help when you were trying your hardest not to cry.

There are a few things that run through a guys head when he sees a girl crying, and even fewer if that guys just so happens to be named Reef. The first thought of course is 'Oh crap, is this my fault?' and the second is...well, actually we don't even need to get on to the second thought, because Reef really should focus on the first one since, yes, this is all his fault.

"Um...Fin?"

"What!" Even if she was crying, it still didn't make this girl any less fierce and Reef paused again. This is a good time to inform you, if you didn't know, that guys get very, very awkward around girls when they're crying. He ran his hand through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh.

"...I, ah...look, I didn't mean too...and I know I yelled,which I so shouldn't have!-" He added in quickly, seeing Fins face darken "- and, um...your right, the vase thing wasn't _really _your fault, I mean, _at all _your fault-" another quick save. "...and, yeah...about the bathroom thing.." Reef slumped his shoulders and let out another sigh as he went over closer to stand near Fin. She looked up from the ground and met his gaze, no longer glaring. Reef took her hand gently, she didn't make a move to hold it in return, but she didn't push it away either. " Honestly, it really was just a joke and I-" Fin dropped his hand, and she turned away from him, letting out her own frustrated sigh. Reef just looked confused, he thought that was going well?

"Look" Fin started, still not meeting Reefs eye "I know it was a joke, I get it, you've said it enough times!" She wasn't yelling any more, and there wasn't an edge to her voice. Reef just looked even more confused and he frowned slightly.

"Then, what?" he asked, genuinely, trying to get Fin to look at him again. "Why are you still upset?"

Fin let out a humour-less laugh "Because I'm crazy, that's why!" She sniffed and wiped at her eyes "Because one minute I hate you, and then the next I like you, and then you make me think your interested, and then I get nervous and I say something stupid to make you hate me, and then I hate you for hating me, and I hate myself for making you hate me, and then you go after another girl and I hate her, and then you stop seeing her and I get excited again even when I know I shouldn't, and then you seem to like me again and then I think I like you again, and then I get nervous all over again and then some stupid thing happens or you do something stupid and then I'm not sure any more...and...its so..stupid!" Fin let out another bark of laughter, even though now a few tears had started to fall, and she looked up at Reef with a small smile, though unhappiness was in here eyes "But your just joking right? Its all just a big, dumb, stupid joke..."

Reef stood there, speechless. For once in his life, he didn't have anything to say. He let his mouth gape, trying to find the words. "...Fin...I-"

"No! Its fine, you don't have to say anything, I get it..." Fin started, not looking at Reef, she didn't think she'd be able to look him in the eye ever again...but then he took her hand in his, and she couldn't help but look back up into his eyes, which were staring down at her. She didn't say a thing as his hand came up to her face, his hand cupping her cheek as he brushed the hair out of her face. Fins eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat as he leant down towards her for the second time that night, and finally let his lips touch hers in a soft kiss. Their hands were still held together, and as he squeezed his hand around hers, she squeezed back. Even though her eyes were closed she could feel his lips smile under hers through the kiss. Gently, he pulled away, still smiling as he looked down at Fin.

"And I promise, this time, it wasn't a joke"

Fin couldn't help the smile from breaking out across her face,as she opened her mouth to talk, to finally ask the question she'd wanted to ask for what seemed like ages "Will you go out with m-"

"HEY! What are you kids doing around here!" Fin and Reef both jumped at the sound of the gruff voice, and they turned to see the torch of one of the bouncers shine on them and Reef winced as it got shone in his eyes "I could hear you two yelling all the way out the front, but it looks like you two made up then didn't you?" The bouncer snarked, pointing his torch down at the two's held hands, and how close the two were standing together, Fin still leaning up against the wall with Reef standing over her" But anyway, I don't want any horny kids getting it on in _this_ garden, got it!" the half man, half gorilla barked out at them "So get yourself s back inside!"

Reef and Fin looked at each other nervously, without moving, they'd just tried to escape this place, they didn't want to go back inside again!

The bouncer watched them impatiently, before he screwed up his face and he stared thoughtfully at both Reef and Fin, concentrating hard. It must take some effort to motivate the five or less brain cells he had, they probably weren't used to work "Hey, wait a minute..." he said, realisation washing over his face "Your those kids we weren't supposed to let in!" He then shone his torch up at the open window, and turned to glare back at them "Oh ,you little bastards!" The bouncer practically spat those last words. He probably didn't take to kindly to being outwitted.

"Wait!" Fin suddenly stepped forward, breaking apart from Reef and putting her hands up in defence "I can totally explain what happened!"

It was just at that moment that the second bouncer stuck his head out of the window/escape route, looking down at Reef and Fin from the window ledge, looking thoroughly confused. He then looked up and saw his other bouncer pal "Hey, Dave!" So, apparently flash-light guy is called Dave

"Yeah, David?"...and apparently his friend is called David. Huh. Well make of that what you will.

David nodded behind him "There's a broken vase just down the hallway here, y'know what's up with that?" He asked, shrugging.

The two Neanderthal bouncers just stared at each other, perplexed, for about a minute. You could practically hear the gears in their head trying to turn. All of a sudden, they locked eyes and it was as if a light suddenly clicked on in each of their heads. Those little bastards, indeed! They both turned to glare daggers at Fin, with Reef almost cowering behind her.

"...soo, like I said, I can totally explain what happened!" Fin laughed nervously, she would just calmly explain that the guy behind her pulled a horrible 'joke' on her in the bathroom, and she was so mad she stormed out, and due to a mix of her rage, the fact she wasn't looking where she was going and a mangled ankle...she just kind of...bumped in to it? They'd buy that right? Fin stared up at the murderous looking faces of the bouncers as flash-light-Dave slowly started advancing towards them, and window-David had already started getting out of the window "...umm...so maybe I cant explain it.." Fin said weakly. Just then, Reef grabbed her shoulders and raised his arm, pointing up and behind Bouncer Dave , a panicked expression on his face.

"OH MY GOD! LOOK BEHIND YOU!"

The two bouncers turned and looked.

"RUN, FIN, RUN!"

**wooooh, a chapter that was nearly ALL Reef and Fin! I so enjoyed writing that, even the fight scene : o. I tried to make it realistic, so Fin didn't cry dramatically or anything. They were like manly tears!...for a girl. Yeah, haha. Plus the kiss! I could envision it so well in my head how it would go, so I hope I wrote it well enough that you liked it a lot too! But what's going to happen now that the big ol bouncers, Dave and David (heheh naming is fun. I actually have two friends in the same group named Dave and David, and its really weird haha) RUINED the moment! And more importantly, are going to give hell to Fin and Reef! How will they escape! Dramatic! Also, Johnny is totally on his way! And he's crazy desperate to have some fun! Will shenanigans ensue? Is Lo still drunk? Will Emma have to wait any longer for those drinks! Find out next time!**

**I'm also sad I didn't write much about the other characters, but it wasn't worth it since the next scenes with Emma and TY and Lo with Broseph would have been sooo long anyway, and would've taken me ages to write. And I wanted to get this chapter up qickly because I will be going away this sunday to go to year 12 leavers! Every other graduating student in Western Australia heading down to Dunsborough for a week long party! Hopefully no parties that'll end up like Brittany's has...ahaha!I'm so excited, but I wont get a chance to write or out up a new chapter, so you might have to wait a couple of weeks to find out what happens next.**

**Please leave a review since I LOVE them and I love ALL OF YOU who read my story! Even the anonymous kids are cool haha. Please tell me what you think should or shouldnt happen, I love hearing all your ideas : )**


	9. Dude, are you plotting something evil?

**AAAARRRGGGH I AM SORRY TO ALL OF YOU! I know I have been ridiculously late with an update! First there was leavers week, so I was completely away from the computer, and then I started my new job and just lots of little things like meeting friends or Christmas shopping...well I shouldn't really make excuses! So, again, sorry!**

**I might have to apologise again as well, since this chapter also focuses almost entirely on Broseph and Lo. No Reefin (DONT KILL ME FOR IT!). Since the plots been getting heavier in each set of characters story-lines, each of there scenes is just getting longer and longer so its like I can only focus one chapter on them at a time. Just imagine if I had put this chapter at the end of the last one, it would've been massive! And would've taken me EVEN LONGER to get done!**

**Also I would love to say a BIG THANKYOU to a lovely anonymous reviewer, stokedfan9, who I hope is reading this now since I cant private message them, your awesome! Because anyone who also finds the expression 'abs you can grate cheese on' as funny as I do, is a legend in my books.**

**So anyway, I know this authors note is filled with half-assed excuses, lets not get mad at me and just enjoy the chapter! **

Broseph managed to support a still sniffling, and slightly wobbly, Lo as he slid open the large glass doors with one hand and led her inside the house (more like dragged )and away from all the commotion outside. There were still a few people lingering around inside the house, a group in the kitchen which consisted of a few girls whooping every few minutes every time one of them they had another tequila shot, as well as some others, a group of spaced-out guys holding onto their joints, who were trying to make pancakes...in the toaster...because they had the munchies (but lets not get into the details of that little escapade, as it will probably not end well). Passing the commotion in the kitchen, and denying both offers of tequila and toaster-pancakes, even if that does sound like a lovely combination, Broseph managed to guide Lo into the adjacent living room. Brittany's house was one of those luxe, ultra modern, open plan houses, and if you haven't watched as many episodes of extreme makeover:home edition as I have, that means the kitchen, the living room, the dining room and the sitting room were all connected into one big space. So unfortunately, as Broseph let Lo finally drop on to one of the plush beige sofas, he could still see the drunken shenanigans going on in the kitchen, a couple making out enthusiastically on the dining room table, and another couple of guys doing...well...he can only assume they're pretending to be lobsters, as they wriggled around on the floor snapping their hands open and shut, and giggling a bit insanely. Broseph was happy assuming they were being lobsters, because frankly he didn't really want to ask questions. So much for getting Lo out of the crazy, drunken, atmosphere.

"PA-PA-PA-POKER FACE, PA-PA-POKER FACE!"

….because it looks like Lo brought it inside anyway. He smiled as she punched the air every time she let out another "pa-". At least she wasn't crying any more. Drunken mood swings came in handy in some situations.

"I WONT TELL YOU THAT I LOVE YOU, KISS OR HUG YOU, CAUSE' IM BLUFFIN WITH MY MUFFIN-"

"Would someone PLEASE shut that chick up!" One of the toaster-pancake makers yelled back from the kitchen.

"No, YOU shut up!" Lo retorted. Hey, you try coming up with a witty comeback when you've had a few litres of alcohol in your system. Toaster-pancake guy (his official title from now on) just shook his head and resumed cooking. Lo turned to Broseph and smiled "I showed him!" she said trimphantly

"You suuure did" Broseph said as he tried not to let out a small laugh. Lo sat up on the sofa and threw her hands up in the air suddenly "WHY are we just sitting here! We should be out with the people, out at that place out there...with them...or something...PARTY!" Lo pointed to 'the people at that place, out there', who she could still see as they milled around outside the giant glass doors. " We could, like, start a conga-line, or LIMBO, or play ...um...uno! OH MY GOD , WE SHOULD TOTALLY PLAY UNO!"

"seriously! Some one shut that girl up!"

"Some one should shut your _mother_ up!" Lo yelled back, again, with a witty comeback. Then she turned back to Broseph, her well practised pout and puppy dog eyes in place. Brospeh quickly tried to look anywhere but those eyes, instead trying to focus on a tv guide that sat on the coffe table in front of him. He knew he would lose if he looked into those eyes.

"Yeeeah, I think you've partied hard enough for one night, chiquita" and drunk enough for eight, he said silently in his head. Broseph hated that he had to be the responsible, sober person for the night. He'd much rather start a drunken limbo contest right now, instead of, you know, thinking rationally and trying to prevent it,so Lo didn't hurt herself more than she already had tonight. "Most people stop partying after they've been punched, you know what I mean?" He smiled, forgetting that he should try and avoid looking at Lo right now, as he turned his head towards her without thinking. Bad idea. In the few seconds Broseph had been distracted, Lo had intensified her pout ten-fold, so now her perfectly glossed, pink, lips were now jutting out at the most perfect level of adorable (looking particularly kissable, I may add) and her puppy dog eyes were now at full force as she blinked, her lashes fluttering.

Broseph didn't stand a chance.

"...well, I guess we could go and party for a _bit_ longer..." He said hesitantly, smiling as he looked at Lo.

"YAY!" Lo squealed and threw her hands up, as she dived onto Broseph for a hug. Of course, drunk people rarely have that much control of their actions, and as Broseph was totally unprepared for the ninety pounds of drunk girl that was Lo Ridegemount, its not that surprising that the two ended up falling, hard, from the plush sofa to the hard squealed and Broseph winced as they landed, with Broseph splayed out on his back, and Lo landing right on top of him, her arms around his neck and her head on his chest. The two blinked and gathered their wits for a second, Lo lifting her head to look at Broseph, her hair falling over her face as she didn't bother to smooth it back into place, as the two's eyes met.

"Broseph?" she half whispered.

"Um..y-yeah?" Broseph said, doing a pretty good job of keeping calm considering the girl he had the biggest crush on was now currently lying on top of him, with her face just centimetres from his, and her leg positioned in a rather...compromising...place.

"I..." She paused. Broseph's mind was racing with so many questions, and his heart was beating violently in his chest. Was this happening? Was he really pinned under Lo Ridgemount right now? The very girl he'd been dreaming of getting pinned under for god-knows how long? What was she going to say? In his dream, this was the part that they would kiss, but that's stupid! Of course she isn't going to kiss him!...but what if she is? Is this a confession? Maybe he should kiss her...the timing is perfect! Who knows when he'll get this chance again! Just do it, who cares about the consequences OR what she' really going to say, just take the chance and do it! Do it now!

Just as Broseph leant forward, about to do the very thing he'd dreamt of, about ten centimetres from the lips of the girl he wanted more than anything..

"I...think... I'm drunk!" Lo giggled as she finished her sentence. Broseph halted to a stop, his mind, that had been running at a million miles just seconds ago, now drew a blank.

No more dream like situation.

No more confession

...No more kiss.

Broseph let his head fall back and hit the floor again as he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Lo was still giggling as she rolled herself off of Broseph and now lay on her back next to him. She punched the air "And NOW we can go party!" she said excitedly as Broseph lifted himself up off the plush carpet without a word.

'Heey?" Lo called out after him "Where are you going? I thought we were gonna' party?" She said, rolling over onto her stomach as she watched Broseph retreat to the door.

"Yeah, I'll..I'll be back in a minute, alright?" He said, lacking any enthusiasm " I'm gonna' get you some food to sober up on before we head back out" He turned back to her as she reached the door and gave a half-hearted smile " Don't want you doing anything you'll regret, right?"

Lo frowned as she watched him leave, confusion showing on her face.

"So...what was that about?"

Lo turned to the kitchen, were the group of stoners, turned chefs, as well as the tequila shot girls, formed an audience, each one having stopped what they were doing to watch what just went down between the two groms. "Yeah-" One of the Tequila girls spoke "- I totally thought they were gonna' start making out" and the others nodded in agreement. "Miss poker-face over there just killed the mood, though" one of the guys added, and they all tutted and shook their heads.

Lo pulled a face and glared " Your pancakes are burning"

The group turned around "Oh, shit!" Toaster-pancake guy panicked as he saw the black smoke and bubbling pancake mixture erupting from the toaster. Lo slumped down, with her head in her hands, not bothering to watch the frantic commotion that was now filling the kitchen, ignoring the shrieks of the girls and the screams of 'oh god, oh god, now its on fire!' as she just stared at the glass doors, willing for Broseph to get back quickly. Truth is, Lo wasn't _that_ drunk...Well, she was still drunk, but not drunk enough to let herself kiss Broseph that is. When they fell together, and she was staring at him, and he was staring back, and Lo felt her heart race and her breath hitch in her throat...it took all her will power not to blurt out how much she liked him and just lean forward and kiss him right there. Lo sighed, good thing she had a little time to sober up. If she hadn't, she probably would of gone ahead and admit her crush like an idiot. Good thing she'd managed to stop herself just in time, changing the 'I...think... I really like you' to a 'I...think...I'm drunk', at the very last minute. Still, even that didn't stop Broseph from being tremendously uncomfortable, did you see the way he just left? He probably felt so awkward he just couldn't stand to be around her right now, Lo thought as she let her head flop down on to the carpet, stopping herself from screaming in frustration.

She stayed like that for around a minute, before she heard footsteps and sensed a shadow wash over her as the glass doors slide open. She quickly lifted her head up, hoping it was Broseph returning.

"Hey" A familiar, cocky, voice filled her ears.

"Oh, its you" she said, her hopes falling and her head dropping onto her hand again.

"Ouch" Lance, chuckled, putting a hand over his heart in mock-hurt. The other hand holding a half empty Smirnoff ice"What's got you so grouchy?"

"Mmmm, go away..I'm not in the mood" Lo grumbled almost incoherently " Go follow some one else around all night" she waved him off "I'm busy.."

Lance raised an eyebrow "Busy, huh?" he said doubtfully, staring down at Lo as she lay in the middle of the room with a frown on her face. "Well, how 'bout you take a break from your 'busy' schedule and come party?" a sly smile spread across his face as he held out his Smirnoff ice, dangling the drink temptingly in front of Lo. She had her eyes transfixed on the bottle, watching it sway back and forth, hypnotized.

"No..." Lo started weakly, before snapping her eyes downwards. She refused to let herself be sweet talked by the alcohol dispenser...I mean Lance! Yeah, that's his name... "No! Broseph will be back in a little bit, with some snacks and a drink so I can sober up, theeeen I can go party! So SHOO, you stupid...stupid person!"

"Sober up? C'mon, it's a party!" Lance grabbed Lo's hand without warning and tried pulling her up from the floor "You'll have plenty of time to sober up after you pass out at 3am, that's the saying I live by anyway" Lance said, somewhat revealing the reason he himself had so few brain cells left. " Now lets go, princess"

"No!" Lo barked out shrilly, and more or less like a five year old who didn't want to go grocery shopping with mom on a saturday morning while the cartoons were still playing on TV. "No!" She said for even more childish emphasis "We wait for Broseph!" She then proceeded to throw herself back down on the floor, making Lance suddenly jerk downwards as he still gripped her hand, almost losing his balance and dropping his drink, which was still gripped in his other, free, hand.

"Why do we need to wait for him? He can meet us out on the deck!" Lance struggled harder to try and wrench Lo back up again, but as mentioned before, Lo is heavier than she looks.

"'Cause he said to wait HERE!" Lo said determinedly as the tug of war match suddenly got under way , with Lance pulling up and Lo tugging down.

"Well why listen to-" Pull "-him!"

"I'd Rather listen to him than-" Tug "-You!"

"But wouldn't you rather be dancing, than just-" Pull "-Lying here!"

"Yeah, but I'm sure he'll be back here in a-" Tug "-Minute!"

"With food and drink to sober you up" Pull "Even though I can tell you want to keep drinking!"

"I've had enough already!" Tug 'Sobering up is a good idea!"

"Is that what you think?" Pull "Or what he thinks?"

"...Shuttup!" Tug

"Thought so! Wow, never thought I'd see the day Lo Ridgemount stopped her partying ways-" Pull "-For a boy that just rejected you"

At this point Lo was frowning so hard she was giving her father a run for his money, and instead of even replying she just Tugged him down twice as hard, not dignifying him with a response.

"Wow, no come back for that? I didn't strike a nerve did I?"

Lo still didn't answer

"Ok then, that's cool" Lance finally let go of Lo, letting her drop to the ground again" I'll just go tell everyone outside, you know, all your friends and everyone from school, that your gonna' stop being the ultra-fun, party queen, and instead your just gonna' mope around inside because some guy just totally blew you off 'to go get snacks'" he looked down at Lo sympathetically "..because do you honestly think he's coming back?"

Lo hung her head as Lances words stung. If she hadn't been so upset, maybe Lo would of asked herself 'how did Lance know Broseph went off to get food for me?' but of course, she didn't, and all she focused on was how much of what he was saying hurt.

While she stayed silent, Lance made an audible sigh "Well, see you later ,Lo" But just as he turned around, he heard what he wanted to hear.

"No!...wait, I'll come with you..."

Lance smirked. This was going just as Brittany told him it would.

And guess what? That calls for another flash back scene, don't worry! Its just a little one, it only happened about ten or so minutes ago...

_Brittany was red in the face as she pushed and elbowed her way through the crowds of people , not caring who's drinks she spilled or people she hurt on her way as she head back to her own kitchen. Stupid Ty! She fumed, Having only just been humiliatingly rejected by the love of her love, and then stuffed herself with about a dozen bread sticks from the resulting shame, she didn't even want to think about how many carbs she just digested! Great, adding a pound or two just adds to how great she feels right now. So again, stupid Ty! Stupid Emma! Stupid Lo! Stupid Chelsea and Tammy! God, why did everyone around her have to be so irritating and...and..stupid!Ty was stupid for ignoring her! Emma was stupid for being the REASON Ty was ignoring her! Lo was stupid for bringing Emma in the first place AND being a general pain in the ass! And Chelsea and Tammy weren't even helping her get rid of these people! Urgh, god, did she have to do everything herself? If this party wasn't going to totally suck, Brittany herself would have to do something about it._

_Oh, and Ty is also stupid for taking her drink away, a drink she so desperately needed right now._

_Brittany finally reached the glass doors as she started brainstorming some malicious plots in her mind. Tell everyone at the party that Emma has Herpes, and then hope the rumour spreads fast enough so Ty will hear? No, not enough time for that. Grabbing the bowl of melted chocolate from the fondue stand at the buffet, and then 'accidently' spilling it all over Lo's white dress? No, she did that at the school dance last year, Ha, that was a good night. Maybe she should just stick to a classic and bitch slap the both of them until they pass out. Gee, she wasn't in a very creative mood right now, her plans are usually much more cunning. What she needed was some inspiration..._

_Inspiration_

…_..Inspiration_

…_...Urgh, inspiration is hard. She defiantly needed that drin- and heeelloooo there, what have we here?_

_Just as Brittany slid open the door, the first thing she saw was Lo._

_Then she saw Broseph._

_Then she saw that Lo was ON TOP OF Broseph!_

_Brittany's eyes widened and she quickly , and quietly, scurried over in her heels to the kitchen and dived behind the marble topped benches, crouching down next to the cupboards. Brittany was vaguely aware of the stoners currently cooking right next to her, as they stared down on her, wondering exactly why the host of the party was squatting down near there feet without so much of a word of explanation. Toaster-pancake guy raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth, about to speak, then quickly closed it again as Brittany looked up at him with a glare that could kill kittens, and gestured wildly with her fingers on her lips and mimed zipping them up, then pointing to all of them vigorously. The guys were half baked anyway, so they just shrugged and turned back to pour more pancake mix in various appliances. This time they chose the coffee maker. Brittany rolled her eyes and ducked out her head to peer around to the living room, where she could get a good view of her arch nemesis in a most compromising, and incriminating position. The two were practically in their own world, they hadn't even lifted their heads when Brittany came in. Did Lo have a crush on this guy? She'd had her suspicions when she'd first seen the two together, when Lo had literally jumped on the guy earlier when they were all playing that stupid colour game or whatever, but now it seemed pretty concrete..._

_...well, until Brittany watched Broseph walk out the door that is. Damn, she shouldn't be so reflective when trying to spy on people, you miss things! What had just happened? How was she supposed to spread nasty rumours if she didn't know what had just gone down? Brittany watched as Lo lay still with her face buried into the carpet, and without making a sound, quietly slinked past her, going through the glass doors and back out to the crowded deck of the party. Brittany was sure she'd just witnessed something she'd be able to use against Lo, only now she just had to figure out how to use it in the most vile way imaginable.._

_First things first, she needed to go after Broseph..._

_As the wheels of evil turned in Brittany's platinum blonde head, she neglected to look at all where she was going, resulting in.._

"_Hey, watch it,!"_

_Brittany whipped around to face the person she'd just collided with as she was walking, ready to dish out a quick , fake, apology so she could just keep walking and get on with what she was doing .Instead, she recognised the face "Oh...its you" She said, unenthusiastically._

"_Yeah, its me" Lance smirked "And if I had known it was you I just bumped into, I wouldn't have been so rude" He said as he put an arm around Brittany .Lance, being a local, obviously new Brittany from school, and being the brainless, brawny, egotistical, self-centred jerk that he was...he was also part of the inner circle of popularity that Brittany ruled as a monarch._

_Brittany put on a tight smile. Just because she called someone a 'friend' in public, didn't mean she actually liked them, and she stiffened as he out his arm around her. She ran her eyes over him disdainfully, not even saying a word. Ultimate bitch move._

"_Well...Fancy meeting you here" Lance said, trying to break the awkward silence that Brittany was intent on creating._

"_Yeah, totally..." Brittany said sarcastically "Since its MY party and all, wow, who would have guessed I would show up? Life's full of surprises like that I guess..."_

"_What's got you in a bad mood?" he joked "Have you not reached your daily quota of ten guys per night yet?"_

_Brittany was surprised Lance knew what the word 'quota' was and how to use it in a sentence._

"_Haha, aren't you funny" More sarcasm. "And for your information, I wouldn't touch half the guys at this party with a ten foot pole"_

"_More like you've ALREADY done half the the guys at this party with a ten foot pole"_

"_...that insult hardly makes any sense"_

"_...your a slut"_

"_I hate you"_

"_Aaaaw, don't be so mean" Lance smiled and hugged Brittany tighter with the arm that was around her "We always...'got along' , so well after all"_

_Brittany raised an eyebrow "Just because we 'got along' so well, like, one time, doesn't mean I want to 'get along' with you again" _

_Lance shrugged "Should've figured, the only guy you want to 'get along' with these days is Ty anyway" he stared down at her with a mocking smile "and everyone knows how well that's working out for you" he sipped his drink " Is that why your in such a bad mood? Ty deny you access to his pants agai-OW!"_

_He got a sharp elbow to the gut for that one._

"_-well, as much as I'm loving this conversation right now" Brittany roughly shrugged off Lances arm from around her shoulders, while he held his side in minor pain (The mocking smile still in place, I might add) "I have something to attend to" she said, pointing to Broseph as he stood near the snack table/buffet getting Lo her food. But before she could strut away more than two metres, Lance called back after her._

"_Hey, wait a sec!" Brittany rolled her eyes, tired of being held up when she obviously had an evil scheme to put into motion. "You seen Lo anywhere lately?" Brittany pulled a face as she heard the question. _

"_Lo? Why do you want to find Lo?"_

"_I already invested around ninety dollars worth of alcohol trying to get her into bed" he smiled "Be a shame if I gave up now"_

_Brittany smirked, There were a few things she liked about Lance._

_Brittany paused mid-step and turned around "So you want to bang Lo, huh?" she said, stepping back over to Lance as the wheels of evil were whirring in her head again. Broseph could wait a minute._

_Lance just looked at her, not quite comfortable with the look Brittany had in her eyes. "Yeeeah..." he said slowly "And?"_

"_And what if I told you-" Brittany started, as a devious smile stretched itself across her face "-that I could make that happen?"_

_Lance paused "...Make what happen?"_

_Brittany rolled her eyes, exasperated, and resisted the urge to slap him up-side the head "Make Lo want to sleep with you, dumbass!"_

"_Oh!" Lance widened his eyes, eagerly nodding, before another look of confusion crossed his face "But how would you do that?"_

_Brittany smiled again "Don't worry, all you have to do is, say what I tell you to say, and do what I tell you to do, and in the end I promise you'll have Lo in your bed" she shrugged innocently "and even by the off chance I fail at helping you get her, I guess I'll let you sleep with me instead...deal?" Brittany held out her hand to shake on it. Lance smiled, now convinced he was in win-win situation, as he shook in agreement, though he couldn't stop himself from asking the obvious question._

"_Why do you want to help me sleep with Lo anyway?"_

_Brittany just flashed another innocent smile "Well that's not really any of your business" she said coldly "I just have a plan, that's all"_

_**aaaand the plot thickens! Ultra-bitch Brittany is up to something, and it looks like she'd roped in Lance to assist with her dastardly plans. Is she going to actually help him sleep with Lo? Or is that only a dangling incentive she's going to use to make him carry out her bidding? We now know that both Broseph and Lo like each other, even though both of them are completely oblivious to the others feelings, it looks like there's going to be more than one obstacle to overcome if these two want a happy future.**_

_**NEXT CHAPTER will feature some long awaited Ty-Emma action...and when I say action, I mean action! Along with Fin and Reef making their getaway, Broseph finding Lo with Lance, Tammy and Chelsea taking a turn for the worse and johnny FINALLY showing up, I guarantee the next chapter will be the most drama filled chapter in this story yet!**_

_**Review and I will love you!3**_


	10. Dude, I'm soaked!

**OH MY GOD! I'M UPDATING! BOUT FRIKKIN TIME, I KNOW!**

**Anyway, I wont hold you up, get to reading!**

**Sorry for the wait!**

Finally.

It had happened

Emma had cracked.

Sick of waiting, even just for another couple of minutes , Emma had stormed off that deck chair and was now striding away from the pool. Who needs men! All useless, lying, UN-punctual individuals! That's what they are. Well screw them all! Especially Ty! He was probably off chatting up some other girl right now. Probably got the two drinks, spotted some bimbo making eyes at him and thought, hey, the walk down to the pool is an awful long walk just to get a girl, may as well stay here and make my life easier! And here Emma was making a total ass out of herself by just sitting here waiting for him when there's probably 0.05% chance of him ever coming back. Well like she said, screw 'em! Who needs 'em! Emma was NOT a girl who could be so deluded by nothing more than a sweet smile and some smooth lines-

"Hey, Emma!"

"Heeeeey Ty!" Emma did a double take as she spun around, hearing Ty's voice, smile in place and eyes beaming with relief.

...okay, so ignore that last part.

Ty smiled back apologetically "sorry I took so long, I ran into some...holdups" he said, thinking back to Lo, briefly worrying if she was okay now, but that train of thought abruptly stopped when he realised there was a hot girl standing in front of him "You didn't come looking for me did you?"

Emma paused "...yeah! Yeah, see _that's_ the reason I'm up and walking around right now, instead of , you know, sitting back at the deck chair and all where you told me to wait. It wasn't as if I was just sitting there for ages and ages and ages and then thought you wouldn't be coming back and then eventually lost faith in you and decided to leave...or anything...haha!" She let out a nervous laugh. Emma was never good at lying.

"Uhhh, okay then...sooo, you want that drink you've been waiting so patiently for?"

"God, yes!" Ty blinked as the Cruiser was almost ripped out of his hands. Emma partially ignored the fact that she was standing in front of the boy of her dreams as she tilted her head back and downed around half the bottle as fast as she posibly could. Hey, the girl was nervous! She was in serious need of some liquid confidence.

Ty let out a laugh "Woah! Easy does it there. I wouldn't have taken you as a girl who sculled her alcohol" he said, taking a sip of his own drink. Reef may have been teased about drinking a cruiser, but that's because its Reef, this is Ty were talking about. He could be sipping on a long island ice-tea, complete with little umbrella and everything, and still make it look cool.

Emma took the bottle away from her lips, quirked her head to the side in what she hoped was a seductive fashion, and racked her brain for something cool and witty to say "Well..maybe there's a lot of things you don't know about me"

There was a pause

And then the two of them burst out laughing.

"Oookay then, where the hell did you get that line from?"

Emma slapped him lightly on the shoulder, still giggling and red from embarrassment "Shuttup! It sounded cooler in my head!"

"Oh, did it really?"

"Yes, it did! And give me a break, I'm not used to sounding cool and witty!"

"Yeah, I could tell" Ty laughed as he dodged another playful swat to the arm.

As Ty and Emma continued drinking, play fighting, laughing and just flirting in general, two sets of narrowed eyes watched on. Tammy and Chelsea were skulking around the now practically emptied buffet table, their arms crossed, glaring daggers.

"What are they laughing at now?"

"I don't know...probably at how stupidly red her hair is...or something"

Chelsea was never that good at insults. She didn't really need to be when she was friends with Brittany, a girl who could throw out around ten insulting statements within a two minute period.

Tammy wasn't bothered to come up with a better insult, so she just nodded "Yeah, who does she think she is? The little mermaid" Both girls let out a half-hearted laugh, knowing their own insults were weak. They had both been the victims of a Brittany-rage, immediately after Chelsea had taken them all on a trip down memory lane by bringing up the old Lo-cafeteria story, Brittany just let it all out. Every single thing that had gone wrong that night was just channelled and blamed right on them. 'Ty doesn't like me!', 'That Emma girl stole him!', 'Lo brought all those stupid groms with her!', 'My party was supposed to be perfect!' 'Why would you even bring up that old story anyway, you dumbass!'.

Those were just snippets of the long-winded rant they endured for a solid five minutes before Brittany had stormed off. So both Tammy and Chelsea were most definitely NOT in the party mood any more. Imagine how two puppies would feel after being scorned by their master, getting a sharp bat on the nose with a scrolled up newspaper. A sad comparison, but an accurate one.

"I hate it when Brittany's mad at us" Chelsea sulked quietly "Remember in fourth grade, during arts and crafts, when I accidentally spilled red paint over the finger puppets she'd been making?"

"Yeah, and then she super glued your hands together?"

"I was stuck like that all through recess before a teacher noticed..."

Tammy just nodded solemnly. Being the smarter of the two (though that wasn't a hard feat) she knew that by pissing off Brittany, they were potentially up for a much harsher punishment than just super glued hands. She turned to Chelsea, her voice deadly serious.

"Chelsea, we cannot have her mad at us. We have to do everything, and anything, to get back in her good books. You've seen what she's done to other people and I do not want that happening to us"

Chelsea nodded back. Even her brain could comprehend just how seriously they needed to handle this matter.

"Like the time that freshmen winked at Ty in the school hall near his locker, and Brittany spread a rumour that she had an abortion after becoming pregnant with , the Gym teachers, illegitimate baby?"

"And everyone believed it and she got expelled and sent to St. Hilda's school for wayward teens. Yes, exactly like that time"

And with that, it was agreed. Tammy and Chelsea would be doing whatever it took to stay out of St. Hilda's.

Meanwhile, a Betty and a Kook were dashing as fast as they could down the soft sand of the coast line.

Well, one of them was dashing.

"Run faster, Reef! Faster! They're gaining on us! HYAH! HYAH!"

"Don't you 'Hyah' me woman! I am not your damn getaway horse!"

He may as well been, a split second after yelling at Fin to run away back up at the house,having been cornered by the bouncers, Reef had realised that she couldn't exactly walk, let alone run, anywhere. And that how he'd ended up scooping her up onto his back, and piggybacking her as they made their get away.

"Fine! MUSH then, MUSH!" Fin yelled, as she tightened her arms grip around his shoulders.

"I'm not a husky neither!"

"You punks just wait till I get my hands on you! Your 'gonna be paying for a lot more than just that vase!"

"Mush, mush!"

"Fine! I'm mushing, I'm mushing!"

They must have been running for a good ten minutes so far, and it was a good thing Reef was in pretty good shape too. So far the bouncers had been trailing behind by about twenty metres, having had to catch up and being considerably weighed down by their bulky frames, whereas Reef was a lot more lithe.

However, Reefs breath had started to slow down to more and more ragged pants, and his strides were becoming shorter and shorter.

"Run along the wet sand near the water! Its easier to go faster on!"

"You know what would make this easier? If I didn't have to carry a cripple on my back!"

"Who crippled me in the first place, kook!"

"Okay, true enough! But seriously, these are new shoes and getting them wet would totally ruin them and-"

"There's 'gonna be more than one cripple on this beach when were done with ya!" A gruff voice yelled out from behind them once again.

"Fine! Wet sand it is!" Reef squeaked out as he swerved down and headed towards the ocean, quickly hoisting Fin up higher on his back.

"Hey, careful with those hands!"

"Now is not the best time, Fin!" Reef conveniently brushed that one off, and even though he was running for his life across a beach at 1am in the morning with two brainless, heavyset bouncers after him, Reef still mentally high fived himself for managing to cop a feel.

At the same time Fin managed to mentally roll her eyes, before she whipped her head behind them to see how far the bouncers were now. The quick swerve in direction seemed to have thrown them off a little bit, since the beach was dark. Then Fin had an idea.

"Quick" she whispered to Reef "get in the water!"

"WHAT!" Reef yelled in mock horror.

"I said, get in the wat-"

"Yeah, I heard you, crazy lady. Why the hell would you want us to go in the water! Its past midnight and we'd freeze!" Reef argued as he kept running.

"But look! The only lights around are the street lamps up near the road!" Fin started explaining " So the further we move down towards the water, the darker it gets! And where's the absolute darkest and least likely place that we would be found?"

"...in the water" Reef finished, unenthusiastically. Obviously seeing that Fin had a point, Reef screwed up his face and rushed the both past the small ,crashing waves, and into the waist deep, blackness of the water. The sounds of the water breaking against the sand covered their splashing as Reef finally dropped Fin from his back, quickly rubbing his shoulders from relief.

"Ooooh shit, that's cold!" Fin immediately spat out as quietly as she could as she hit the water.

Reef just glared, deadpan.

The two bobbed down in the icy cold water so only their eyes and noses poked above the surface, everything around them was almost pitch black this far down the beach, the lights from houses and street lamps mere specks up along the road. As the two lumbering bouncers finally made it down the waters edge, out of breathe, the two tried to make their teeth chatter as quietly as possible.

"Wait, wait, hold it dude!" One said, finally jogging to a halt, holding up his hand to the other one.

"What? Don't tell me your tired already?" Bouncer number two jabbed, even though he looked just as read in the face and his own breath was coming in short gasps as he barely got his words out.

"No, no its not that" he said, swivelling his head around inspecting the beach "Where the hell did they go?"

His friend did his own scan of the area, squinting to see in the dark "Aw shit! You lost 'em!" He said angrily.

"Me! Your were in front, you should of kept your eyes on 'em!"

"Well, its too dark anyway! If it was lighter I wouldn't have lost them!"

"Well no shit, but its midnight, you can exactly expect it to be light!"

'Well, if your just 'gonna be like that I don't even know why I bother with this shi-"

Before the guy could go completely menstrual over the whole situation, his friend held up his hand to silence him "Dude...I think I see them!" The both of them shuttup and the other turned around too squint into the darkness too.

Reef and Fin stiffened. So busted.

"Over there!" he pointed.

"Where?" the other one squinted, looking over into the pitch darkness.

"There!"

"Oh...oh yeah! I see them too!"

"Come on! After 'em!"

and with that the two charged off...in the opposite direction, the way they'd all just came, back up to the house.

"Crafty little punks, trying to fool us by doubling-back ,ay! Well they are no match for us! We saw straight through their plan!"

"Hell yeah we did! Haha, idiots!"

Reef and Fin just watched on as the two Neanderthals disappeared into the night , talking to themselves as they ran back up the beach. As they're voices eventually faded into nothing, Reef stood up out of the water.

"Well, as fun as it is swimming around in sub-zero temperatures, I think I'm going to head out. Besides, I've seen the movie Jaws, and I'm sure you don't want to deal with another sexy, midnight swimmer being eaten" Reef said, as he waded to shore.

Fin stood up after him and followed "So you consider yourself a sexy, midnight swimmer?"

He turned around to face her "Why? Don't you?"" he said playfully, pulling a zoolander-esque face.

Fin smiled and leant up, giving him a quick kiss on his lips, before striding past him into the break waves "mm, a little" She said cheekily.

Reef gave himself another mental high five, before hurrying after her as she reached the shore.

"Aw, crap. It's almost as cold out here as out there" Fin muttered, wrapping her arms around herself, wishing she was wearing more than just this tiny black dress. And where were the shoes she'd been wearing? Oh, she must've left them back in the bathroom where she'd taken them off. Crap, Lo was going to kill her. How much do Prada shoes go for these days, again?

"Hey, wait a minute! Your walking!"

Fin was snapped out of her daze as Reef walked up behind her on the sand, a frown on his face. She guiltily avoided looking him in the eye.

"Oh..uh...yeah! Hey, look at that! Wow, I knew seawater was god for you and everything but I didn't know it was _that_ good hahaha...ha..ha"

"..."

"Oh, don't look at me like that! I't really did hurt before!"

"..."

"...I just started feeling better when the bouncers came..."

"..."

"Running on it would have probably made it worse again anyway,so really it _was_ necessary!"

"..."

"Would a make out session make you forgive me?"

"...possibly"

Meanwhile, back up at the house, Broseph managed to slide open the glass door to the house with his shoulder, while holding a napkin full of Doritos in one hand and a cup of water in the other. Lo's first aid in other words.

"Heeey Lo, I didn't know if you liked normal Doritos or cheesy supreme Doritos, so I took a wild guess and went with cheesy supreme, since hey, who doesn't love extra cheese right! Wait...Lo?" Broseph stopped for a second, suddenly realising the entire room was empty. Not even toaster-pancake guy and the stoners were around, only a blackened toaster and a puddle of brown gloop. The tequila girls? Gone too, but back to the most important thing, Lo wasn't there either.

"Ooookay then..." Just as Broseph turned around to go back outside, he jumped, dropping the Cheesy supreme Doritos to the floor. Brittany had been standing right behind him, mega-watt smile looming up at him.

"Hiiii!" Brittany cooed in an overly enthusiastic way, blocking the door. Broseph's only chance of escape. " You must be Lo's friend"

"Um, hi ,Brittany" Broseph's eyes darted around , looking for any other available exit. There was none. Crap.

"Oh, you know my name!" Brittany smiled and looked surprised, well acted, she generally assume people know who she is anyway.

"Well, yeah, we _have_ gone to the same highschool for five years..."

Brittany blinked "...right! Of course, hahaha. How could I forget you...yoouu..."

"Broseph"

"Yes! Broseph! It was on the tip of my tongue I swear!"

and here she thought the guy on top of Lo was just some random party-goer, the fact that he went to her school made it so much easier!

"So" she continued "What are you up too now then?"

Broseph didn't especially mind the fact that Brittany hadn't recognised him from school, he generally avoided her crowd anyway and he was kind of glad he managed to slip under her radar...until now anyway. "Well, actually I was just on my way to find Lo and-"

"Oh, really?" Brittany interrupted, mock surprise on her face "Well, I just saw her outside dancing with Lance near the pool and whatever so-"

"Wait, with Lance? You sure?" Broseph couldn't stop the small frown that came across his face. She'd gone off with Lance?

Brittany shrugged innocently "Yeah, she's been there awhile. Looked like she was having fun too" a small mile crept on her face as she looked straight up at Broseph "Why? Do you like her?"

Broseph looked away and didn't meet her gaze "I..No, I just...well thanks for telling me where she is anyway" and with that he stepped passed her quickly, and Brittany gladly made way for him. Oh this was so easy.

Back over near the pool, Lo was once again busting out some moves to some Lady Gaga. Seriously, did the DJ want to play anything else? Not that she was complaining, she needed some good music to get over the revelation that the guy she's liked for god knows how long will probably never speak to her again. In the short time she'd been inside, people had started to spill out from the deck and down the limestone stairs, towards the pool area. Now the practically deserted spot had all its deckchairs pushed back to the side and a whole bunch of people had formed a second, makeshift dance floor, herself and Lance now included in the mass of people. Lo was vaguely of Lance occasionally trying to snake his arm around her waist, or grind on her from behind, but every time he tried she managed to outmanoeuvre him,twirling and shimmying away from his grabbing hands. She didn't really want to be with him right now, but its better than being alone right? Sometimes as she danced she'd spot a mop of yellow hair in the corner of her eye, and she'd whip her head around to see if he was there, but it would always just be some other guy. Lo would scoff and think to herself, ugh, Brosephs hair's ,like, twice the size of that, pathetic. But then she'd try to shake the thoughts of him away and just keep dancing and drinking to forget.

And then, even over the sound of the music, she heard his voice.

"Lo!"

Lo stopped dancing among the crowd of people and whipped her head around, trying to spot him, and then all of a sudden he was in front of her. She didn't know if it was the alcohol or just plain speechlessness but she couldn't manage to get any words out.

Broseph reached out to put his arm on her shoulder, before quickly dropping it, unsure of himself and where he stood with her at the moment. Lo still had no idea what she should say. They were just standing there, completely stiff, crowds of people moving around them making noise while they could only stand still and stare, neither knowing what the other felt.

"Uh, I got you some water" Broseph mumbled, holding out the glass he still had in his hand. Lo reached out to take it, before she noticed she still had the Smirnoff ice bottle clutched in her hand, almost empty. They both looked at it, and Lo looked up at Broseph as if she was about to apologise, and that's when..

"Hey baby, why stop dancing?"

...Lance decided to show up. Deciding to take full of advantage of Lo finally standing still, he successfully managed to come up behind her and wrap his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. Lo snapped here eyes away from Brosephs, deciding the floor was an interesting thing to look at right now. It was when Lance finally stopped eyeing up the nice birds-eye-view he had on Lo's cleavage, to notice that Broseph was there.

Not looking too happy I may add.

Lance smirked and raised his glass in greeting "What's up bro?" he said cheerily, before taking a swig, his other arm still wrapped tightly around Lo.

Broseph gave a tight smile back "First of all, where not Bros." he let the smile drop "Second, let her go" His voice wasnt mad, not even threatening, Broseph was keeping his cool.

"Let her go?" Lance said mockingly "Why, she's having fun, right babe?" Lance didn't even look down at Lo as she still remained silent. "Besides, she's having way more fun out here than she was up with you. The one who wouldn't let her drink or do anything she wanted to do-"

"She doesn't _want_ to do anything with you"

Lance smiled "Then why is she out there with me instead of waiting back there for you?"

Broseph didn't say anything. Lo still avoided all forms of eye contact, as she stared avidly at the limestone pavement.

Lance smirked "exactly, no snappy comeback for that, eh? And you should've seen her _before_ you just got here. Dancing away, having fun. Did you not notice she stopped right when you showed up? Look at her, she doesn't want to see you, dude, or talk to you. So maybe you should just be considerate and leave, hm?"

"No!"

Both boys looked at Lo as she finally decided to join the conversation about her. Lance let out a huff as he was pushed in the stomach and Lo freed herself from his grip, stepping out to stand right in-between the two boys, Broseph in front of her, Lance behind.

It was all very symbolic.

Her steps were awkward, and she swayed a little without the support. Once again in the effects of alcohols clutches, Lo started to speak.

"I...I don't..no...I mean yes...because...of the thing...and you hate me but he doesn't though...I like you more because...no...and...with the thing...what?"

….yeah...exactly.

What?

The two boys temporarily stopped glaring at each other to try and make an ounce of sense from what Lo just said.

She swayed a little where she stood, turning to face Lance, then turning to face Broseph, then looking back down towards the floor...and then she just did the only thing she could think to do in this situation.

"I dooont knooooow!" Lo screwed up her face, and let the big fat tears well up at the corners of her eyes.

Oh god.

"Look, you made her cry!"

"Me? Your the one giving her more to drink and dragging her out and molesting her!"

"Hey, she wanted to drink, remember!"

"Well, I doubt she'd want to drink knowing it was only so you could take advantage of her!"

"That was never my intention!"

"Bullshit, it wasn't! Don't even try and deny it!"

"Hey, if anyone wanted to take advantage of her its you! Your the one who's practically obsessed with her!"

"I'm not obsessed! And I'm definitely not a sleaze like you anyway!"

"Hey, who you callin' a sleaze!"

"You, dumb ass!"

"Yeah, well, your hairs stupid!"

"Oh, don't you even dare bring the fro into this, man! Too far, too far!"

While this whole cringe inducing fight was taking place, as if on cue, around five girls had detached themselves from the crowd of dancers to rush over and put their arms around Lo, bringing out tissues and comforting one liners. Seriously, it was as if they had a sixth sense for these things. That, or some sort of radar.

Right now, it was all just a bit too much for Lo. Drunk, crying, confused and exhausted, Lo just felt like she needed to get out of there. Pushing past the group of girls surrounding her without a word she dashed forward, not even looking where she was going. She ignored their shouts as she blindly tried o get away. It was like one of those old romance novels, where the heroine is so torn up inside by her feelings she no longer cares about anything going on around her and she just needs to be alone...

except, in the novels, I doubt the heroine was drunk

or wearing 4 inch heels

...or metres from the edge of a pool.

So as Lo lunged forward, she probably regretted ignoring those girls cries, as they were mostly warning her to watch out where she was going. Lo barely registered what was happening as the heel of her shoes caught itself on the raised tiles of the edge of the pool and she went flying downwards into the clear blue water below.

It was only her loud shriek as she hit the water, and the resulting splash, that managed to re-catch the attention of both Broseph and Lance.

And, of course, everyone else at the party.

Their were a few gasps, and shrieks and laughs. People pointing, stopping what they were doing to look and see what idiot had fallen in the pool.

"Oh my god, did someone push her?"

"Hahaha! I was so waiting for this to happen all night!"

"Is that Lo Ridgemount?"

"Wait, is she drunk?"

Finally Lance poke up when he overheard that last one "Oh, shit! Yeah! She wont be able to swim will she-"

But before he could even finish that sentence and start panicking, he heard another loud splash as Broseph threw himself in after her. He did a neat dive as he plunged under the surface. The noise from the party grew distant as water flooded his ears, and all he could hear was the low thuds of the speakers vibrating. unable to open his eyes due to the chlorine, Broseph frantically reached and grabbed with his hands until he managed to get a grip on what felt like Lo's arm, and then he pushed off the bottom of the pool with his feet and propelled them both upwards in one smooth motion. As soon as he felt himself leave the water he took a gasp of air, as he opened his eyes to see Lo next to him, coughing and spluttering, obviously swallowing some water, and rubbing her eyes to get the chlorine out. Right then Lo didn't care that her make-up was running down her face, or that her hair was now ruined, not too mention her expensive dress. She didn't care if Broseph hated her right now either, she just threw out her arms and flung herself on to him, and of course started bawling her eyes out.

"Hey, hey, no need for that. You _didnt_ drown, remember?" Broseph laughed as he hugged her back "Thats a good thing, chiquita, be happy about it!"

Lo lifted her head off his shoulder and looked up at him, laughing along "But I could of! You saved my life!"

Broseph smiled, but looked down at the water...which was up to his waist "Well, actually ,we are in the shallow end.."

Lo paused, then they looked at each other again "...well, you still jumped in after me, and that counts for something" Lo smiled, then Broseph was smiling back...and yes, this was another one of those moments, when both of their hearts started beating like crazy, and their breath was hitched in their throats, and they were slowly leaning into one another and..

"Hey Lo! Better watch where your going next time, huh?HAHAHA!"

..And then some jerk had to ruin it. A few of his friends joined in.

"Oh my god, her make-up is totally ruined!"

"How embarrassing!"

"I would totally die if that was me right now!"

Lo felt herself turning bright red, even if she was drunk she knew when she was being laughed at. Right then, Broseph suddenly dunked himself under the water. What! Was she being left to face the sham and embarrassment on her own? Of all the dirty , rotten-

"WoooAH!"

Lo let out a surprised shriek as she felt herself flying up and out of the water, indistinctly letting her hands try and grab anything for support. That support would be Broseph, who had gone under, circled around, and now had Lo sitting comfortably sitting on his shoulders. Lo's eyes were still wide, and it took her a minute to figure out what had just happened.

Broseph turned himself to the crowd "Who said anything about falling? We just wanted to chill in the pool is all" He shrugged and said it so casually. Lo smiled.

The smartass pulled a face "Fully clothed?"

Broseph smiled at him "Of course fully clothed!" he gestured the rock-on sign with both hands "That's just how we do it, bro"

"HOOOOOOONG-KOOOOOONG PHOOOOOOEEEEEEYYYY!"

Everyone shrieked as someone launched themselves off of the deck and cannon-balled themselves straight into the deep end of the pool, letting the water from the giant splash rain down on the crowd, causing shrieks from all the girls standing too close to the pools edge. Broseph blinked and stared before the figure surfaced and he instantly recognized him.

"Whatssup, Kahuna" He said, giving the old beach-bum the sup nod, casually.

Kahuna shook the water from his left ear, and then sup-nodded right back "Nuthin' much ,bro"

Before they could even say another word too each other, another person had dived into the pool with a yell and a splash.

Then a pair of girls jumped in straight afterwards, shrieking as they launched themselves into the deep end.

A few guys followed after that.

All of a sudden their was shrieking, and splashing everywhere. Whoops of laughter and screams as people hit the cold water. Girls were at the side of the pool taking off their shoes and earrings, dumping them in piles on abandoned deck chairs. Show-off guys were stripping off their shirts, and a few daring girls took off their dresses too cheers and catcalls from the boys.

Lo couldn't stop beaming as nearly everyone that had been watching was now joining them in the pool, thinking they'd done it on purpose, and now following their lead! Even the smart-ass had slipped in and doggy paddled past them, even people from up on the deck were coming down, seeing what all the commotion was about and watching from the railing, a few running down eagerly and others copying Kahuna and starting to dive bomb off the side. "WHOOOOOO!" Lo couldn't help but let out a loud cheer, and it echoed from the crowd as they let out their own screams and shrieks right back.

"I said it then , and I'm gonna say it now!" Everyone turned to watch as a completely random guy stood up on the steps of the pool, beer can held in his hand, raised up as if to toast someone "Lo Ridgemount throws the most epic parties , EVER!"

A loud cheer went up from the crowd, before a voice piped up.

"But this isn't Lo's party, its Brittany's!"

The random paused "...oh...well, she still dominated this one anyway! WHOOOO!"

"WHOOOOOOO!" The crowd just collectively shrugged, and cheered Lo on anyway.

Chelsea and Tammy watched on, not even smiling. This wasn't a step in the right direction, that was for sure.

"Brittany is noooot gonna' like this"

"Understatement of the year, Chelsea"

"They're all cheering for her..."

"I know"

"She stole all the attention..."

"I know!"

"This is probably why she didn't want Lo comin-"

"Godammnit, I know!"

Tammy grabbed onto Chelseas arm and pulled her away from the deck railing, pushing past the people in the crowd and stopping so they could talk a few feet away from any prying ears. "Do you realise how much harder this is gonna make our jobs!"

"Our jobs?" Chelsea pulled a face, still letting Tammy grip onto her arm.

"Yes, Chelsea, our jobs! Our jobs to fix this party! To make it suck-less!"

Chelsea just looked more confused, as she looked over at everyone cheering and having fun "It doesn't look like it sucks very much to me, everyone's having a great time and-"

"I mean suck-less for Brittany!"

"Oh, yeah.." She nodded "I can see how that would be hard"

Tammy ran her hands through her thin, black hair, resisting the urge to scream "Were gonna have to something drastic to get back in her favour, to fix this and make her happy again..."

Chelsea stood silent as she watched Tammy border on somewhat of a nervous breakdown. She scanned the deck until she spotted a familiar flash of red hair "Wait, I have an idea!"

Over a few metres away, leaning against the railing, Ty looked on somewhat amazed. How could his sister go from being punched and crying last time he saw her, and was now on top of Broseph's shoulders, beaming from ear to ear, getting cheered on by the rest of the party? God only knows.

"Well she looks like she's having fun" Emma said, and Ty turned to look at her as she stood next to him.

"Yeah, and you don't even want to know the fun she'd been getting up too before" He smirked sarcastically and Emma just blinked and looked like she was going to say something. But before she could reply she felt someone bump into her hard from behind and she crashed into Ty, the half bottle of drink she was holding went flying to the side, the fruity coloured liquid spilling right over the bright green dress, as well as Ty's own shirt.

"Aw, crap!" Ty exclaimed loudly and Emma gasped in horror.

"Oooh my god, Ty! I didn't mean to, someone pushed me!" Emma whipped her head around to spot the culprit, someone to blame this shamefully embarrassing incident on! But there were a tonne of people behind them, well, maybe like, eight. But nobody that looked very guilty. Emma rolled her eyes, looking down at the bright red stain that had managed to cover a good portion of her, wait, correction, Lo's, very tiny dress. Aw crap was right.

Ty just sighed, their was no point in getting angry about it. Even if his shirt was bright white and a designer Ralph Lauren. He could see the look of worry on Emma's face, he didn't want to make her feel worse than she probably already did.

Chelsea, meanwhile, bounced back over to Tammy with a triumphant smile on her face, looking proud of herself. Tammy just frowned "...that was it?" Chelsea nodded.

"Yeah! Did you see the look on their faces? Ty probably hates her now, and I ruined her stupid, ugly dress!"

Tammy just shook her head in despair. St. Hilda's , here she comes.

"Seriously Ty, I am so, so sorry!"

"No, no, Its fine, really!" he laughed, blowing it off, then noticed how much Emma had spilt on herself "Hey, you know I'm friends with Brittany, I know her from school, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you changed and borrowed one of her dresses, if you wanted of course?"

Emma looked doubtful. She imagined Brittany would care very much if she wore any item of her clothing. Even a sock might push the limits of her kindness.

"Seriously Emma, she wouldn't mind a bit" Ty said, as if reading her mind "and I know you probably don't want to walk around the rest of the party with a bright red stain on your dress, right?"

Well, he had a point.

"Oh...fine! But if she gets mad at me, you take the blame!" Ty laughed as Emma pointed at him threateningly, well, what she thought looked threateningly. Ty just thought she looked plain cute.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be the bad guy then! Now come on, I'll take you to her room" and with that, he grabbed her hand and led her across the deck and back inside the house.

Tammy's eyes followed them. Where did they think they were going?

Chelsea look disheartened "Aw, what! He's holding her hand? I thought for sure that would make him hate her!"

Tammy ignored her friend, as she stared after the glass door that Ty and Emma just went through.

Emma was blushing almost as red as the stain on her dress by this point. Ty was holding her hand! SCORE! She barely even noticed the surrounding house as he led her past the kitchen and through the living room, as soon as they got to the hall however..

"Oh, watch out for the glass!" Ty said, snapping her out of her love-sick daze too look down at the beige carpet.

"Woah, someone must've knocked over a vase or something" Emma said, as she gazed down at the shards that littered the floor.

Ty nodded "Mmm, probably some drunk" Then he shrugged "Ah well, no big loss. It was an ugly old thing anyway"

Right then Emma was tempted to ask how he was such good friends with Brittany, and wondered why he was so comfortable going up to her room and taking her things. Not to mention he knew the layout to her house perfectly and even recognised a vase...but then he casually adjusted the grip he had on her hand, and she remembered that she was totally holding Ty Ridgemounts hand right now! Ty's hand! It was holding hers! Her hand! What was she going to ask again? Oh who cares, Ty and her were holding hands!

Even as they turned the corner of the hallway, and Ty held the door open to a room as she went inside, her head was still a little delirious. Oh, wait, were they at Brittany's room already? Lets see, giant ,queen size, pink canopy bed. A desk with a lot of completely unopened school books, as well as a lot of old gossip magazines. Her own flat screen Tv, laptop and home-line phone...all coloured pink of course. And right on the other side, a giant white closet that took up an entire wall of her immense room. Emma didn't really know what to do with herself. She'd never really gone into someone's room when that someone who owns it wasn't there with her, let alone go without their permission. It felt so rude.

Then again, Brittany wasn't exactly polite herself.

Before Emma could think about it any more, she quickly noticed that Ty had taken off his jacket and was now pulling the red-stained shirt up over his head. Okay, stay calm Emma. Don't degrade yourself by turning into a big, gushing, drooling mess just because he's stripping in front of you. Remain dignified and most importantly don't sta- Ooooh abs!

"I'm just gonna take this off, then put my jacket back on and zip it up. No bodies gonna notice, right?" Ty turned back to Emma, stained T-shirt now ditched on the ground and his jacket held in his hand. Abs still on display.

You can tell where Emma's eyes were focused right now.

"...hm...wait, what? Did you say something?" Emma's eyes widened as she snapped back to reality.

"pfft, and they say guys are the pervs" Ty joked, shaking his head in mock offence. He then picked up his stained t-shirt from the floor and threw it lightly at Emma, who shrieked as it hit her.

"What was that for!" She laughed, throwing it back.

"For feeling me up with your eyes! I feel violated!" Ty said, catching it, then clutching it in front of his chest, playing modest"You and your perving!"

Emma blushed "I was most definitely _not _perving!" she said indignantly.

Ty just raised an eyebrow.

"...well you shouldn't just strip down in front of people if you don't want them staring!"

Smooth, Emma, real smooth.

"So you admit it!" Ty said, laughing and edging closer.

"You made me admit it!"

"Yeah, but I didn't make you stare in the first place, did I?"

"Don't let it get to your head! Hot guys like you don't need their ego stroked any more than usual!"

"Oh yeah, says the hot girl!"

Well that certainly stopped Emma in her tracks. Though she tried to act totally non-chalant about it, saying what any normal girl would say in a situation like this.

"Yeah right, I am so not a hot girl!"

Ty rolled his eyes "Yeah, that's what you all say" Emma just looked at him. Woah, was he always standing this close to her? Because right now he was standing only about a foot away. Still shirtless, I might add. Emma just looked up at him, not having a clue what to do. Which was the normal reaction to Ty standing within a 30cm radius of her. "But c'mon, you know your hot, beautiful even" by this point, Tys hand was now resting comfortably just above Emma's hip.

Now the girl could only gape up at him with wide eyes. We are way past the point of beign able to form coherent sentences. Ty just smiled "Well, I guess I could re-phrase that to make it easier for you to understand" and he leant his face down to her height, his lips within an inch of hers "I think you're beautiful"

And then they were kissing.

To think only minutes ago she was obsessing over Ty Ridgemount holding her hand, now he was kissing her!

Wait, let me correct that sentence. _French_ kissing. Ty Ridgemount was _french_ kissing her. Emma seemed to finally realise what was happening, and that this was not actually just another dream or figment of her imagination, and started kissing back, putting both her arms around his neck and deepening the kiss. How had they gotten to this point again? What had they actually come up here too do? Why was she even bothering to ask herself this questions, time to enjoy this moment!

Just as Emma felt Ty's hand wander higher up towards her chest, she thought she heard a strange clicking sound. Just faintly, but it was definitely still there. But no, no asking questions. Ignore everything. Nothing is as important as the fact that she is currently making out with the guy of her dreams. All other thoughts got pushed aside as she let Ty pull her closer against him.

Almost as fast as they had dashed up, both Chelsea and Tammy dashed back down the hall, past the window and jumping over and avoiding the shards of glass. As soon as they were back in the living room Tammy couldn't hide her excitement.

"Did you get it!" Tammy asked hurriedly, snatching the phone out of Chelsea's hands to inspect it.

"Yeah, of course! They left the door practically wide open!"

Almost as soon as Ty and Emma had disappeared into the house, Tammy and Chelsea had followed not far behind, all the way up to Brittany's room.

They'd seen everything.

And they had the cell-phone picture to prove it

It was dark, and grainy, not a great picture by any means. But it was enough. That bright Green dress was unmistakable.

Tammy stared down at the phones screen, unblinking "Don't worry Chelsea" she let a smile creep onto her face as she turned towards her best friend "I know exactly how to get our tickets back into Brittany's good books"

**Ooooh dear. Looks like the minions are thinking for themselves. Things seem well between all our major couples right now don't they? Fin and Reef are happy, Broseph and Lo are happy and looks like Emma might fnally be happy with Ty after all.**

**But of course, you know its not going to stay like that.**

**And I know I said Johnny would finally show up this chapter, but I decided o make his grand entrance at the beginning of next chapter instead. Besides, this chapter is already the LONGEST ONE SO FAR! 21 PAGES! This is to make up for the atrociously long time periods between updates. I now have my new job taking up a lot of time, and on my casual off days I feel too lazy to write, but that's not really an excuse I know.**

**And im going to be mean and not give out ANY details about whas going to go down next, aint I a stinker?**

**Anyway, please review because I will love you forever .**


	11. Dude, Johnny's here!

**Okay, you guys are probably getting pretty sick of all these chapter delays, and my lateness, as well as my excuses...but you might have to get used to them I'm afraid : (. THIS chapter delay was caused by me having a friend from Brisbane stay for two weeks, so I really didn't have any free time to sit down and write as I was playing tour-guide (and to be able to write I basically have to be alone in my house and given about five solid hours, ha). And I'll be starting my TAFE course next week, so no doubt that'll be taking up a lot of my time, so you might just have to learn to be patient little bunnies 3 **

**But you should know by now that I love all your feedback, and I almost always reply to messages (I also tend to give out hints for coming chapters, I simply cant keep that kind of stuff to myself! Haha)**

**Also, ELEVEN CHAPTERS! When I started this I half thought I wouldn't stick to this writing thing and go of it after 2 chapters, I surprise myself with every update! Haha : p**

Emma tugged at the straps of the simple, light purple, beach dress she had borrowed from Brittany's closet. Way to big in the chest area, Emma thought depressingly, but it would have to do. Her stained lime green dress now balled up in her hands, still damp and smelling faintly of alcohol even though she'd run it under the tap for a good five minutes in Brittany's en-suite bathroom. Ty hadn't bothered to try and de-stain his shirt, he could just buy another one easily. Emma had no clue how she was going to explain ruining the, no doubt expensive, dress to Lo. She couldn't pay her back on a wench's salary! Trying to push these thoughts out of her mind, Emma wandered back past the shards of the broken vase,heading back to the party, shouldn't somebody be cleaning that up right now?

Wait, why was she thinking about dresses and stains and broken vases...when she could be thinking about what happened only ten minutes ago! She had just made out with the boy of her dreams! Emma had quickly decided that _this_ particular random hookup at party did _not_ make her at all slutty, since her and Ty were legitimately meant for each other. Seriously, think of it as being less of a drunk-fondling in a back room, and more of a Disney fairytale...only with alcohol and fondling in a back room.

Totally different.

Oh, and before you start thinking along the lines of anything _too_ scandalous, all clothing remained in tact, I'll have you know. Emma wouldn't let anything get too far, you cant make the leap from total good girl to wild-child that easily in one night. And besides, before either of them had the chance to even think of going any further, Ty's cellphone had buzzed loudly from an incoming text message.

'_Dude where r u? U totes ditched us the whole night. Nyway, we r leaving in 5 soo trashed lol. If u need a ryde home jst meet out front where we parked k'_

And that was the misspelled reason why Ty and Emma had to cut their rendezvous short. Of course he'd said he'd much rather spend more time with her, but Emma knew that he had to take the ride with his friends, or risk being stuck with no way to get home .So Emma had just smiled politely and watched as he quickly dashed out the room with a wave. Oh well, she knew it couldn't last all night anyway. Grabbing out her own mobile as she stepped back out to the deck of the party, Emma checked the time.

Crap, when did it get this late!

Emma lifted her head from the screen of her phone, intent on finding her friends and her own ride home, but she gasped lightly in shock as she was suddenly face to face with the one and only Brittany. Emma laughed nervously "Oh, wow, Brittany! You startled me" The colour drained from her face as she remembered she was currently wearing a borrowed/stolen/taken-without-permission dress of Brittany's, with no Ty to defend her. Brittany's eyes scanned down from Emma's face and onto the dress, a stiff smile in paused like a deer caught in the headlights as Brittany stared her down, before she let out another nervous, awkward, laugh "So um,Brittany, there is actually a _reeeally_ funny story behind all this. You see, I was holding this drink and-"

"It looks cute on you"

"- someone accidentally bumped me from behind and cruiser just went flying every-wait, what?" Emma stopped half way through her rushed explanation of what happened to stop and stare at Brittany, dumbfounded.

That wasn't the reaction she was expecting.

That wasn't the reaction anyone would have been expecting.

Brittany just giggled and tossed her hair "Oh Emma, your so funny. I said it looked cute on you! Its a compliment sweetie" She smiled as Emma just stayed motionless, looking scared, suspicious and relieved all at the same time.

"um...thank..you?" Was this a trap? Was she being tested? Should she be running?

"Haha, your welcome!" Brittany positively beamed as she said it "And you know what, you can totally keep it. I mean it suits you so well and, like, I never wear it! Besides, it would be so much hassle for you to get it back to me anyway, it just makes more sense if I gave it to you, you know?"

Emma's eyes darted around, not quite sure what to make of this sudden display of kindness. She'd only ever met Brittany once, true, but that was when she was trying to get them all kicked out of the party, and she knew she had a history with Lo. Even so, maybe she had been quick to judge. I mean, Brittany's smile looked pretty genuine. Emma let out a small smile back.

"Um, well, okay then. If your totally sure it's alright-"

"_Totally_ sure, Emma, don't worry about it!" She waved her hand flippantly over her shoulder "Now it sucks but I cant chat, I have to get back to being the hostess with the mostess and all that, haha, so it was so nice meeting you and thanks for coming to my party!" Brittany then opened up her arms in front of her and before Emma could even comprehend what was happening she'd been pulled in for a goodbye hug.

"Oh, well looky what we have here then, whaaats this all about huh!"

Both Brittany and Emma pulled apart and turned around to see-

"Lo Ridgemount _demands_ to know what's going on!"

God knows why she said that in a British accent. Lo stood there, hands on hips with Broseph standing behind her, both of them soaked from head to toe. Broseph just gave a casual wave of the hand to the two girls.

"Hey, don't mind her, she's just a little drunk"

Emma blinked. So this was Lo when she was drunk. It was then that Brittany stepped forward " I was just saying goodbye to Emma and- wait, Lo, have you been in my pool?"

Lo stood up tall, and crossed her arms "Maybe I have and maybe I haven't! You cant prove anything!"

"...But your dripping wet" Emma pointed out, dead pan.

"...touche"

There was an awkward silence until Brittany put her smile back in place "Well, I'd better get back to mingling" she turned to Emma "Hope I see you round some time, maybe even when you wear your new dress!" She laughed and Emma smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, um, sure. Seeya!" and she waved as Brittany strode past a disgruntled looking Lo and giving Broseph an acknowledging nod, then disappearing back into the now dwindling crowd, not sending one nasty comment or look Lo's way. Not that that stopped Lo from scowling after her, before whipping her head back to Emma.

"Ugh, I cant stand her! The way she totally just gives off these...I dunno...bitch vibes! Yeah, that's a good name for em! Bitch vibes!" Lo said loudly

Emma shrugged "I dunno, she seemed kinda nice actually..." She said, more talking out loud to herself than to Lo. " and I didn't exactly feel any 'bitch vibes' either"

Lo just scoffed "Yeah right, she's as nice as I'm sober...so not very!"

"What exactly did she do to make you hate her so much anyway?" Emma asked.

"Be a bitch" Lo said, as the simple answer, no joking tone to her voice.

"Yeeeah, but what exactly makes her a bitch?"

"Well, when you act like a bitch, it makes you a bitch"

Emma just gave Lo a look . Lo just rolled her eyes and looked exasperated "Uugh, its like a totally long,boring story, but basically she went out with Ty even though I told her she shouldn't and whatever" Lo said it absent-mindedly, like it was no big deal, but those words slammed down on Emma.

Brittany had gone out with Ty? When? That's how Ty knew his way around her house, knew about that vase and everything. But there was something even bigger than that to worry about.

"You...you would hate someone just because they went out with Ty?" Emma spoke softly and slowly, even though she had a million thoughts and worries flying around her head. Lo obviously didn't sense her friends unease as she spoke, and replied just as nonchalantly as before.

"Well not just any random, no, but she was like a reeeally close friend of mine and yeah, there's a whole lot more silly details and back story and whatever, but that's the gist of it" Emma knew Lo wasn't exactly in a right state of mind as she talked, but she took the words to heart, a sick feeling crept its way up in her throat.

What would Lo do, if she ever found out what she'd done with Ty?

What if Ty ever asked her out, the moment she'd dreamt of, would Lo hate her just like she did Brittany?

That wasn't fair.

"Aaaww the pool water made my nail polish chip!" Lo whined, holding up her hand and inspecting her half purple/half bare nails closer.

Brosephs eyes widened and he suddenly saw his chance "Heeey now!That is just a good reason to be going home, aint it? Yep, definitely, time to go home, you cant _possibly_ party any longer with chipped nail polish" He then gently started tugging Lo back through the house towards the front door.

"Weell, I know chipped nail polish is _kind of_ a big deal...but I think I can still go party-" Lo started as she tried to turn around out of her friends grip, but Broseph didn't let go that easily

"No, no. You need to get home because of the nails" He said , dead seriously before turning to Emma looking desperate "Go along with it, I've been trying to convince her to leave for the last half hour!" he said in a whisper so Lo wouldn't hear.

Emma just nodded, she didn't mind, she wanted to get home too. All she wanted to do right now was sleep. "Yup, home time Lo, Brosephs right about the nails"

Lo pouted but shrugged "Hmm, mmkay then" and Broseph and Emma shared relieved looksfinally reaching the open front doors and standing in the middle of the foyer. Lo turned her head up towards Broseph "So how we getting home?"

…...

…...

…...

Blank stares all around

That was a good question.

"Well, ripper of course...that's how we got here in the first place" Broseph said it, knowing himself that he hadn't actually seen ripper at all at this party. Last time they saw him was when he went of to get parking...and hadn't come back. Emma knew it as well.

"I'll try calling him" she said, grabbing out her phone and flipping through her contacts.

_Brrrng brrrng_

_Brrnng brrrng_

_Brrrng brr __*** click* **__"_Urrggh, Hello?"

Rippers voice sounded thick as he spoke "Um, hey Ripper, where are you?" Emma asked.

"Back at the staff house, sleeping! Thanks for waking me up by the way, appreciate it"

"What, you went home? Why?" Broseph's face fell as he heard Emma say this. Lo just picked at her nails.

"Hey, I tried getting in, but there were these damn bouncers in my way! I said I was a friend of Lo's and they practically chased me off the property"

Emma let out a sigh "Well did you take the car with you?"

"No, I rode my dinosaur back, 'course I took the bloody car!"

"How are we going to get back home then, we don't have any other ride!" Emma started sounding panicked.

"I dunno, bum a ride with someone else or just crash there. Just make sure your back before seven thirty in the morning"

"What? Why seven thirty in the morning?" She questioned. Broseph leaning in, wanting to know what was going on. They could hear Ripper yawn on the other end of the line.

"Since all you guys start work then"

"WHAT!" Both Emma and Broseph practically screamed, startling Lo and making ripper hold the phone away from his ear, wincing. "But we don't start till midday on Sundays! You know that!"

"Bummer just re-scheduled everything and called a few hours ago, he didn't know you guys went out. Kind of makes me glad I didn't end up getting trashed tonight, anyway, all of this is-"

"Wait, Ripper!"

"-NOT my problem! G'night"

and he hung up.

Emma and Broseph stared at the phone in horror, as if it was the reason for all their problems.

"What's happening?" Lo asked, completely unaware of the situation. Of course, she was ignored.

"Well that's just fantastic!" Emma laughed, in a panicked and slightly maniacal way "Now what the hell are we gonna do!"

"What's fantastic?" Lo tried again, only to be further ignored.

Broseph put his hands on an obviously stressing Emma's shoulder, keeping a good, safe, distance I might add "Well first, lets just caaalm down Betty"

"calm down? Why on earth should I calm down! Were stranded here, it's nearly 3 am in the morning! I have to be up at 6:30 to get ready for work at 7:30! None of us have money for a cab, buses don't run this late and if we walked it, we might actually _get_ there 20 minutes late _if were lucky!_"

Lo stretched out her hand and started tapping on Emma's shoulder trying to get her attention. Emma shrugged her off

"AND we have to look after Lo, who isn't exactly helping the situation-"

"Hey, Emma" Lo shook harder

"- and to top it all off I've just received some very bad news that might complete jeopardise my relationship with the boy of my dreams! _SO, SORRY IF I CANT CALM DOWN!" _Emma let out a huge breath as she finished her anxiety fuelled rant and a silence fell over the three.

Until Lo started using both her hands to shake Emma back and forth "Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma, Emm-"

"_WHAT! What is it Lo!"_

"Why don't we get Johnny to drive us?"

Broseph and Lo both stared. Emma looked like she might snap again so Broseph quickly butted in "Ugh, Lo, Johnny didn't come remember?"

Lo turned her head and pointed out the wide open front doors " Well who else drives around in that?" she said, and Broseph and Emma turned to stare out the door too, both doing a double take when they saw the unmistakable whale bus parked right in front of the house.

Inside the whale bus, Johnny was furiously unbuckling his seat belt, his face red, an expression of rage, determination and manic happiness on his face. He'd arrived! He had made it! Yes, it had taken him ages to get here! Yes, he got lost a total of three times and yes, he had burst in on the wrong house not ten minutes ago (That poor Chinese immigrant family will hopefully get over the trauma of having a raging teenager bust into their home and yelling at them to "GET THIS PARTY STARTED!") ...but then he had remembered the whale bus had a GPS system, and now he was sure he had the right house! He was gonna have a good time, he was gonna dance, he was focused, he was not going to miss out on anything! Johnny slammed open the bus doors, stepped down, startd marching up to the front doors like he had something to prove, ready to have the time of his lif-

"JOHNNY!"

Johnny was practically bowled over by a force ramming itself into his stomach at a rapid pace, successfully winding him too. Johnny looked down in anger,Now who the hell was trying to stop him from-

...Oh...it was Emma. Angry face gone.

"Oh..um, hi Emma"

Emma looked up at him, her arms wrapped around him in a crushing bear hug, close to tears "I'm so glad your heeeere!" she said, so relieved she could barely contain herself.

Johnny blushed and awkwardly out his arms around her to hug her back, an unsure smile on his face "Well, um, thanks Emma" He laughed nervously. Okay, so this wasn't how he'd planned his dramatic entrance, but getting hugged by Emma was nothing to get upset over. After all , she was totally 'glad' he was here. Oh yeah. It was then that he noticed Broseph strutting over , a huge grin on his face and a hand raised, Lo tottering behind him precariously on her heels.

"You owe me Five bucks Broseph, I told you I wasn't drunk enough to be hallucinating!"

"Dude, this is the most epic timing! You would not believe how much love I feel for you right now!" he said, giving Johnny a high five.

Johnny's grin grew even larger. They really wanted him here! The party must've sucked before he came, this was the warmest welcome ever!

Emma finally pulled away and turned to Broseph "I know! It's like he totally knew we needed to get home!" she said, smiling again at Johnny like he was their saviour.

Johnny's face faltered. "Wait...home?"

Emma laughed "Yeah, Ripper went back home in the car and we had no way of getting back. I swear you have a sixth sense for these things Johnny, you always know when were in trouble and you always end up saving us" she beamed, oblivious to the way Johnny's left eye was twitching.

Broseph nodded "Totally, see, this is why I love having at least one responsible friend" he said, as he got himself up on the bus, making sure Lo herself got up without any injuries either.

"Yeah" Lo agreed and giggled "We should totally not invite Johnny to parties more often"

The others laughed lightly as Emma got on the bus, and all three of them settled down onto one of the plush seats, glad to be going home without any hassle.

Johnny stood rigid outside on the lawn, still facing the house. I'm sure you're all familiar with that old Simpson's quote, and I'm gonna use it since I think it fits Johnny's mood right now pretty well.

Urge. To kill...rising.

Emma rolled down one of the bus windows, sticking her head "Johnny?" she yelled over to him "..Are you alright?"

Broseph stuck his head out next to her "Yeah, you comin' bro?"

Lo sat in the drivers seat, honking the horn "BEEP BEEP, lets get going!"

Johnny shut his eyes, counted to five in his head...and slowly, got back onto the bus without a word.

Meanwhile, back on a stretch of beach somwhere

"Are we nearly theeere yet!" Reef moaned as he trudged along the wet sand, his ruined shoes held in his hand.

"What do you think?" Fin asked as she splashed along in the surf besides him as she walked. "You know, the waters not that cold when you get used to it"

"It feels like we've been walking for hoours!"

"It's even kind of pleasant. We should totally night surf again with the gang sometime"

"Can we rest for a liiitle bit?" Reef didn't even try to sound mature.

"And look at all the stars out, it must be a clear night"

"Fiiiiiin!"

"Oh for gods sake Reef!" Fin dropped the whole 'the-waters-nice-the-stars-are-out-everythings-lovely' act "I'm sick of walking along this beach too, but I'm not complaining every second! Whining doesn't get you anywhere" she said, folding her arms. She looked over and saw Reef pouting at her, a pleading look on his face "..and don't think I'll resort to kissing you just to shut you up, because I know that's what you want!"

Reef frowned. There went that plan. "But I'm not lying. My feet _do _hurt, I really am tired , I haven't had anything to eat all night, I'm wet, cold and I have sand in places that sand shouldn't be." he stopped walking "Can we please stop, even just for a little bit?" he asked, practically pleading.

Fin sighed. I guess a rest wouldn't hurt, after all, she felt exactly the same way Reef did. "Yeah, sure" she started walking up towards the dry sand, Reef following her, practically dancing for joy (Though thankfully containing himself, actually dancing might cause his tired knees to cave in on themselves right about now). The two practically fell to the sand, both letting out huge sighs of relief as their poor feet finally left the ground.

"Oh my god, I never want to get up" Reef mumbled , laying on his stomach, his cheek resting against the sand.

"Yeah, I know what you mean" Fin said lazily, her eyes already closed as she sprawled out on her back. "What do you think the time is anyway?"

Reef grunted, his eyes shut too, practically asleep already "I dunno, check your phone"

Fin thought for a second, then her eyes snapped open" Oh my god!" she said, suddenly wide awake as she sat up in a flash. Reef opened one eye lazily and frowned .

"What? What happened?" He said calmly.

"My phone!" Fin panicked as she scrambled into the pocket of her dress, while something seemed to click in Reefs head too as he frantically grabbed out his own phone from his jeans pocket.

They hadn't even thought of their phones when they dashed into the ocean.

"Is yours dead?" Fin asked.

Reef nodded as he tried jabbing every button on his phone with no success "Yep, yours?"

"Yes!" Fin sighed as she dropped the phone down onto the sand. It was another minute of silence, only the sound of the ocean and the occasional roar of a car going past up on the road, before Fin let out a frustrated "UGH!" and flopped back down onto the sand angrily "This sucks so bad! This _whole night_ has sucked so bad!"

Reef looked over at her "Well, kinda.." he shrugged, still fiddling with his now useless phone.

Fin rolled over, unable to take the glare off of her face "What do you mean 'kinda'?"

Reef let out a small smile, looking back down at the sand "There were some crappy parts I'll agree...actually, yeah, there were a _lot _of crappy parts. But there were a few parts I liked" he said, looking over at Fin.

Fin smiled "What, like the part where I stacked it playing Beer pong?"

Reef cocked his head to the side like he was thinking deeply "Well, I _was_ gonna say the part where you kissed me...but now that you mention it-" He couldn't even finish the sentence before Fin gently punched his shoulder. She laughed though, and there was a smile on her face.

"You are such a Kook"

Back on the bus-

"Hey look! There are a couple'a people on the beach!" Lo had her face pressed up against the glass window, pointing outside "Who the hell would wanna go swimming at this hour? Crazy people" she said. Emma was sitting across the aisle on the opposite seat, but she looked down at the wet patch that had formed under Lo, but she didn't speak up, just rolled her eyes and leant back in her own seat. She didn't know how to feel towards Lo right now. I mean she'd kind of gotten the feeling that her crush on Ty annoyed her a little, but she;d pinned that down to her always pining and never shutting up about him, she didn't actually think Lo had a problem with it in general. But seeing the way she acts towards Brittany now, by Lo's own word all that hate stems from the relationship she had with Ty. Emma had always considered her friendship with Lo to be pretty strong, she didn't think Lo would completely disregard that if she ever started going out with Ty...but still...the thought worried her.

And what exactly were the reasons Lo didn't like her friends going out with her brother anyway?

It was at that moment Lo stumbled over from her own seat, to crash herself down next to Emma " Heeeeey Emma!" she announced as she wrapped her arms around her red-headed friend in an affectionate drunken embrace. "What's the happy-happs? You have fun tonight?"

Emma stiffened at first, mostly because Lo was cold and wet, but she put on a smile and put an arm around her anyway "Yeah...yeah, it was...good" she said, reflecting on most of the night, particularly focusing on one event of course. And of course, that sent her right back into dream-world again.

Lo looked up at her friends face, noticing the far-off-totally-not-on-this-planet-anymore look in her eye. "Emma!" Lo sat up so quickly, breaking away from the hug, and said it so loudly Emma was jolted straight out of her daze, Broseph turned around to look at both the girls. Johnny just sat rigid in his sit, still not talking.

"What, what!" Emma said, startled, eyes darting around as she looked worriedly at Lo, who was staring her down with an intense expression, her face completely serious. Emma looked over at Broseph, he just shrugged back. Lo suddenly leaned in closer, never breaking eye contact, a small frown playing on her face and her eyes narrowing. Emma backed away as far as she could, which was hard considering she was in a bus seat, managing to press herself into the corner as Lo leant even closer so the two girls were practically nose to nose. This intense examination lasted another few uncomfortable seconds before Lo suddenly pulled away , her eyes wide and her mouth forming a perfect 'O' shape. Emma just looked confused.

"Emma!" Lo declared again , pointing dramatically at her friend "You made out with someone tonight didn't you!"

Emma felt like she just got slapped in the face. Broseph just let out a laugh and Johnny finally seemed to be listening.

"What!" Emma exclaimed "No!No, no I didn't!" she said nervously.

Lo smiled rather evilly "Don't deny it, I can see it in your eyes!"

Emma scoffed and laughed "Lo, you cant tell if someone...kissed...or anything, just by looking in someone's eye, that's crazy! Don't be crazy Lo!" f course this was only what Emma said out loud, the voice inside her head on the other hand..

_oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap_

Lo ignored Emma's protests and put on a little sing-song voice "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" Emma only blushed bright red as Broseph laughed even harder.

"Aw, c'mon Emma, you can tell us! We don't judge. Who's the lucky guy?" he winked at her as Lo only continued to sing louder.

"Ugh, Broseph! Don't encourage her! I mean she's only joking around anyway...I did NOT kiss anybody!"

Liar, liar pants on fire is right.

"But I'm not joking! I am never wrong with my predictions, I can just tell!" Lo threw up her hands and waggled her fingers around "I'm, like, magic or some shit!"

Broseph absolutely lost it as she said this, and fell onto one of the chairs laughing without control, even Johnny cracked a smile at the thought of Lo being 'magic, or some shit'.

Of course Emma was the only one who took it remotely seriously, after all, she did guess right! But Emma couldn't tell her the truth, well, not right now anyway. Actually maybe never. Emma honestly hadn't decided what to do about this whole Lo, Ty mess she'd gotten herself into. But now definitely wasn't a good time. Besides, Lo was drunk anyway, she probably wouldn't even remember any of this tomorrow.

It was a pretty dull ride after that, and the groms suddenly realised just how tired they were after this long night. By the time the whale bus pulled up outside the house all anyone could think about was sleep. Emma let out a big yawn as she stepped off the bus, followed by Broseph who was carrying an already asleep Lo on his back.

"I've got to go drive the bus back to hotel, I don't want bummer finding out I took it" Johnny said "And your welcome" The bus doors closed as he drove off. The three made their way up the stairs and onto the porch landing, Emma grabbing the spare keys from under the doormat and letting them in.

"I really need to take a quick shower before I go to bed, I feel gross" Emma said, still feeling sticky from the spilled drink and smelling a little like chlorine from Lo's hug earlier. "Can you put Lo into bed Broseph? I doubt she'll manage by herself"

Broseph nodded "Sure, she's pretty dead to the world anyway, should be easy" he said as they both headed up the stairs and into the girls shared room. Emma grabbed her towel and pyjamas quickly before heading back out the door "Be back in a few minutes".

Broseph looked down at Lo's bed. There was only one way he could think to do this.

"AH!" Lo yelped as she fell onto her bed, having been so elegantly dropped by Broseph "Oooow , that was rude" she giggled, nestling into her covers.

"C'mon, its a bed, how much could it have hurt?" Broseph smiled.

"Have you felt these mattresses? They are waaay harder than the ones you get in the boys room. It's so unfair! Sexism wins again!" her voice was muffled as she buried her face into her pillow, while Broseph suddenly jumped and dropped down onto the mattress himself, sending Lo a good few inches up into the air from the bounce, earning another shriek.

"AH! Do it again, do it again!" she yelled in delight as she rolled over laughing, kicking her legs in the air. Broseph just shook his head and smiled. Alcohol practically reverts this girl back to the age of five.

They heard a banging on the wall "KEEP IT DOWN IN THERE!"

"YOU SUCK KELLY!" Lo cracked up, proud of her fantastic comeback.

"SHUTTUP, ALL OF YOU!" Ripper boomed through the walls

"YOU SUCK TOO RIP-" Lo couldn't finish her sentence due to Broseph lunging over and covering her mouth with his hand, forcing her down, both of them trying not to crack up any more.

"IT'S OKAY! WERE SHUTTING UP NOW!" He yelled back through both of the walls.

And then finally the house was silent.

"Psst, Broseph!" Lo whispered.

"Yeah, Lo?" Broseph whispered back.

"I wanna play UNO!" Lo said, with a stupid grin on her face. Broseph again had to try and not laugh.

"No, c'mon, It's bed time now, you need to sleep girl"

"Naaaw but I don't wanna" she said, grabbing her pillow and hugging it close to her chest, letting her head fall back onto the mattress. She let out a small yawn. Broseph looked down at her doubtfully "...okay, maybe I do wanna sleep...just a little"

"Thought so" Broseph went to go and get up from the bed, but he felt himself being tugged back. Lo had grabbed onto his arm with both hands, still lying down on the bed.

"I don't want you to go" she looked up at him with sad eyes and a pleading expression. "I want you to stay here. With me"

Okay,so just quickly, I want you to imagine yourselves in Broseph's position right now. He's alone, in a room, with the girl he's wanted to call his girlfriend for who knows how long now, and she's wearing a revealing dress, her wet hair is fanning out on the bed behind her, oh and keep in mind _she is on a bed,.._. and she wants you to stay. With her. Did I mention the bed part?

You really cant imagine how loud he was screaming yes in his head. How much he wanted to tell that he wanted to stay, and then get down on that bed with her.

But then he remembered she was drunk, she probably doesn't even realise what she's saying. She probably doesn't even mean it like that, but still, if he stayed, would he be able to resist being that close to her? Broseph thought about the kind of guy who would take advantage of this situation, and realised he wasn't one of those guys. He wasn't like lance.

"Lo...I.." He started, his face stoic, his arm still being held on too, but Lo interrupted.

"Don't you like me?" She asked, seeing the look on his face and sensing the no coming.

Broseph looked away from her face and down at the floor, he couldn't stand her looking so hurt, even if he was the one doing it. He just knew he should leave before he did or said anything stupid.

But before he could even bring himself to say anything, Lo cut him off again, but this time it was from her pulling down on his arm, and bringing herself up to kiss him, her lips landing on his before he even knew what was happening. For a second he forgot about everything, and kissed back. It was a sweet kiss, not passionate, not even romantic, just sweet, and in a way Broseph liked that more. Lo was the one who pulled away first, loosening her grip on Broseph's arm and letting her hands fall back to her sides. She looked up at him. "Because I really, really like you?" She practically whispered.

Broseph didn't even say anything. He couldn't.

He just left the room.

**And the party is officially over! So this is actually where the real drama starts.**

**I hate leaving chapters on a tense note, I'm a comedic writer at heart! I don't think drama and romance scenes really fit with me hahaha, I try though I always want to slip in a joke somewhere...**

**Anyway, Emma might not be in a very good position right now, even if things seems to be going well with Ty himself, how do you think Lo will react to this budding romance? And what's with Brittany's sudden attitude change? Lo and Broseph seemed to be doing so well, but will Lo understand Broseph's reasons for leaving, or take it as a snub? Reef and Fin are going fine relationship wise, but there still stranded on a beach somewhere ...has nobody even realised they're missing? I guess everyone has their own problems to worry about...speaking of problems, what happened to that cellphone picture?**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter, I'll be practically glued to the computer just waiting to hear your lovely reviews! (Yes, my life is actually that sad) so please tell me what you think, your opinions, what you didn't like, what could be better, and how much you hate me for being so mean to poor Johnny !**


	12. Oh, right, the party

**Whoooo left the last chapter on a bit of a downer, and I swear I don't actually enjoy putting these characters through hell (well maybe just a little..) , So I'm gonna try and keep this chappie a bit more happy...wow, that rhyme didn't sound quite so lame in my head...but whatever. Also, thank you guys for being so patient, now I've started Tafe things have just got into a schedule and I need to try and figure out how to get time to write around it, and deal with homework and boring junk. After writing essays you kind of don't feel like writing again for awhile haha.**

**Also, you might have noticed that the chapter titles have changed a little. Instea of putting "dude" before each title, its now going to be "Oh, right,". The dude chapters are the ones PRE party, and the oh right chapters are POST party : p. You'll get the 'oh, right' joke as you read this chapter.**

A soft morning sunlight glistened down on to the surfers paradise staff house, birds chirping gently as the morning breeze flowed off the ocean, rustling the trees in the surrounding area. All was peaceful, all was calm..

"Clear the way, I think I'm gonna be sick!"

Emma blinked lazily as she heard Lo's voice and padded footsteps hurry out of the room, on a dash for the bathroom. She yawned and sat up right in her bed, looking towards the door Lo had just dissapeared from. She then turned her head to the floor, seeing a discarded green dress on the floor, as well as a purple one next to it. What? Where had those-

Oh, right.

The party.

Emma wasn't exactly a fast thinker in the morning, but she slowly let all the events of last night come back to her. Remembering that last night had been her first night actually drinking alcohol, Emma did what most people do as a newbie, and stopped to check if she felt 'hungover'. Lets see, headache? Nope. Feel sick? Not at all, she was hungry even. Had the feeling of shame and worry about what she got up too last night?

Well, yeah, but that wasn't because of any alcohol...

"Don't worry, false alarm" Lo said, as she staggered back from the bathroom and flopped down back to her bed "Though I don't think Kelly is that happy about me bursting in on her having a shower for nothing, we really should get a lock on that door"

Emma didn't say anything. She was too busy looking Lo up and down. The girl was a mess. She was still in her clothes from last night, the dress was wrinkled and stiff from having been subjected to a night drying in chlorine water. Lo had obviously shifted around in her sleep, so the dress wasn't even on the way it should be, being strapless it had somehow twisted itself around so the tag at the back now stuck up out the front. Lo's hair looked like someone had attacked it with multiple blow dryers and crimper's all at once, sticking up at all sorts of tragic angles. Emma winced at the thought of getting those knots out. And the make-up, mascara and eye-shadow had smudged itself everywhere, like she had two black eyes, or actually, make that a _panda_ with two black eyes.

Lo finally noticed Emma staring at her in a kind of morbid fascination.

"Uuuum, can I help you there Emma?"

Emma just pointed silently to a mirror. Lo gave her a confused look but get up to go check herself out anyway.

The scream was ear shattering.

Back down on the beach Reef felt himself jolt awake. He blinked as he felt the blinding sun burn down into his eyes, and he pushed himself up on the sand to-

...wait a minute, blinding sun?

…...sand?

Oh, right.

The party

That's when Reef noticed the other thing strange about waking up this morning. He looked down and saw Fin, lying comfortably on his arm, snuggled right up to his chest. Wow, he didn't think anyone could look so cute when they slept. It wasn't often Reef got to see Fin's face when it wasn't in a frown, a smirk or a stupid grin. It was nice. It was then that Reef had a brilliant idea. I mean, they were practically going out now right? The words 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' hadn't been said at all last night, but come on, It was totally gonna happen anyway. So, what better way to wake up your adorable girlfriend than with an adorable good morning kiss?

Reef puckered up and leant down to plant a soft kiss on Fins lips when-

**BAM!**

"No Channing Tatum, I will NOT give you my pudding!" Fin yelled as she was startled awake, her arm swinging out in front of her as she sat up at lighting speed.

"Ow! What the hell Fin!" Reef muttered angrily as he rolled backwards onto the sand clutching his nose, where Fin had just inadvertently punched him.

It took Fin a minute to adjust. Where was she? Why was Reef next to her? Why did she feel sand in places sand should not be felt?

Oh, right.

The party.

She looked back over at Reef, who was now lightly prodding his nose, determining that it wasn't broken. "Oh, sorry.." she said lazily, yawning. "I get pretty worked up when I dream about Channing"

"I noticed" Reef said, unamused. Seriously, he thought he would be in the middle of an epic make out session by now, not checking to see if he was still in on piece. Pfft, last time he tries to be romantic in the morning.

Fin stretched her arms high above her head and yawned "So-" she started "Were still stranded on the beach then?" Reef just nodded.

"Well, unless some kind hearted crabs decided to drag us further down the coast in our sleep, yeah, yeah we are"

"Ugh , I am so not up for more walking" Fin sighed, ignoring Reefs sarcasm. She looked over cheekily at Reef "Maybe we could just live here instead?"

Reef laughed and shrugged "Sure, why not. Building a little hut here on the beach and scavenging for food every night seems like a way better idea than just, you know, walking to the place we actually live"

Fin smiled "It'll be just like MaReefland"

As they laughed, something clicked in Reef's brain "Hey, have you noticed something?"

Fin looked lost "..noticed what?"

Reef turned to look at Fin, his eyebrow raised "I've only ever managed to get close to you...when were stranded along a beach somewhere" Fin blinked, thinking back to the time at MaReefland, and thinking about just last night..

"Oh my god,...your right" she said as the truth of it dawned on her.

As the two processed this strange realisation, a familiar voice called out to them and they both turned around to look behind them.

"Yo, what are you two doing?" Ripper's thick Australian accent called out. There he was, walking towards the, wearing his board shorts and carrying his surfboard.

"Ripper?" Reef called back. What the hell was he doing here? "We were stuck here since last night after...you know what, it's a long story lets not get into it...but more importantly what are YOU doing here!"

Ripper just blinked "...going for my _usual _morning surf before work" he said, tapping the board under his arm "And if you got "stuck" here, or whatever happened, I don't really care,...why didn't you just walk up to the house?"

Fin rolled her eyes "Well, duh, we _would_ have done that if we didn't happen to be _stranded_ miles from the house!" she said, exasperated.

Ripper raised his eyebrows "Stranded?" he said, calmly.

"yes!"

"...Miles away from the house?"

"yes!"

"The house that's just up there?" Ripper pointed behind him to the pathway that led up through the trees and towards their familiar staff house.

"YES, _that _hou-wait a minute" Reef caught himself mid sentence. Both Reef and Fin faced eachother, then looked at ripper, then at the pathway, and then around the beach they were on.

The office.

"You mean...we actually managed to walk...all the way back to the office..." Fin said slowly to herself. "and back to the house?"

Ripper tried to hold in his laughter "Well, not all the way, you were a few metres off from the house Sheila". He said, strolling past them and heading towards the early morning waves.

Back up in aforementioned house, Lo and Emma were stumbling down the staircase to the kitchen. Emma was keen for some breakfast and Lo was in desperate need of some painkillers. A hangover for Lo Ridgemount very rarely came with any early morning vomiting, thank god, but the headaches made up for it. She'd managed to partially tame her hair, having drawn in up into a ponytail, as well as wiping off the remaining mess of her make-up so she looked decent...well, decent enough. Oh, and that screaming you heard before? Not so much because she looked a fright, but mainly because seeing herself in that state, Lo quickly remembered WHY she was in that state to begin with and mentally said to her self 'Oh, right. The party'. So this brings us to the absolute WORST sideeffect Lo Ridgemont suffers from as part of a hangover.

She manages to remember every. single. Thing.

No conveniently forgetting all the stupid shit she says or does. No blissfully ignoring any embarrassing incidents and no escaping from what she knows she did. And by looking into that mirror and remembering that party, she remembered something she truly, absolutely, positively did _not_ want to remember.

She made a move on Broseph.

Oh, great, there was the urge to vomit again.

_How_ could she have been so stupid! She told herself the entire night, don't do anything stupid around him! Well, she hadnt actually done anything stupid. She kissed him and admitted she really liked him...i would class that as _momumentally retarded!_...not stupid...But seriously, She'd managed to hide her feeling for ages successfully and then she just ruined it all within the time frame of 2 minutes. Well done Lo! Ugh, what was he going to think of her? Lo knew there was no chance of him ever liking her back before, and she could cope with just being his friend but now? She got completely rejected and he was going to see her as some weird, pathetic, desperate freak and he'll avoid her for the rest of his life and never speak to her and never make her laugh with his jokes or go surfing with her or push her around on the lobby luggage carts or-

"Lo?"

"WHAT!" Lo jumped and screamed as Emma tapped her gently on the shoulder.

"..Um, I was just a little worried about you is all..." she said, backing up a little, eyes wide. "You just looked a little...stressed". Stressed was putting it lightly. Lo looked as if she wanted to cry, scream, decapitate someone or throw up. Maybe all at the same time.

"Yeah, well...I just have stuff on my mind, okay?" Lo said, with more of an edge in her voice than she intended.

There was also the death glare she couldn't help but let out.

Emma started walking back up the stairs "On second thought, I think I might go take my shower before I go to breakfast" she said, practically running back up the stairs, away from the dangerously moody Lo.

"But Kelly's already in the bathroom!" Lo called back up to Emma as she ran, but she didn't get a reply as she heard her friends hurried footsteps. "Ugh, what's her problem?" Lo muttered to herself as she walked by herself to the kitchen. As soon as she entered the room though...

"Hey, Lo" Broseph said, cheerfully smiling.

Lo stood, rigid. She suddenly felt like running up those stairs after Emma.

"Oh, hey Broseph" She said in what she hoped was a calm and nonchalant way. In reality she sounded like she just inhaled a small dose of helium by the way her voice squeaked out of pure nerves. Smooth. "And how are you this fine morning?" Because apparently being nervous makes Lo speak like an upper class brit.

Thankfully Broseph didn't seem to notice as he sat at the table, digging into a bowl of cereal. "I'm good" he said, actually pulling off the act of casualness pretty well. "I made breakfast for every body?"

Lo blinked "Really?" she momentarily forgot her problems, the thought of Broseph cooking ad preparing a meal for all of them seemed to weird.

"Yeah" Brospeh nodded "It's just like a chocolate milkshake, only crunchy!" He smiled proudly as he pointed to six bowls of cocoa pops that sat on the kitchen counter. "No need to thank me"

Oh, don't worry, Lo hadn't planned on it. She just smiled stiffly and grabbed one of the bowls, joining Broseph at the table. The two just sat there, Broseph gulping down giant spoon fulls of cocoa pops, crunching loudly on each one, while Lo sat there twirling her spoon around in the milk, not actually eating a bite. This went on for about five minutes.

The term 'Awkward silence' doesn't even begin to cover it.

"Sooo..." Lo started, not quite sure where she was going with this, but the silence wasn't exactly going anywhere that was for sure. "...Um, about that..thing that happened last night. About what I said?"

Broseph stopped mid-crunch. All ears, looking right at Lo.

"Ummm.." Lo faltered as she made eye contact. She quickly diverted her gaze to the floor. Yup, that worked better. "So yeah, you know how I said I liked you-" She took a deep breath inward "-and...and, kissed you?"

Broseph slowly nodded, not taking his eyes off Lo. This was it. This was the real deal. Lo definitely wasn't drunk right now, somehow she'd managed to remember what had happened last night. She was going to say those wonderful words he'd been dying to hear for so long again 'I really, really like you' and this time Broseph could be sure they meant something. This. Was. it.

"I was totally drunk!"

…..This...wasn't it...

Broseph just sat in his chair as the words seemed to tumble out of Lo's mouth at a million miles per hour.

"I am sooo sorry about it, like I said, totally drunk! Like off my face, I had no clue what I was doing! Absolutely no clue, I probably would've made out with _Fin _if she had been the one stuck with me, know what I mean? Not that I'm a lesbian or anything but that's not the point, the _point_ is that it wasn't because it was _you_. Because I totally don't have a weird crush on you or anything, seriously I don't, so no need to worry about that! So, like, sorry If I totally freaked you out last night with the whole confession thing, you probably think I'm a total weirdo right now but I swear to you I absolutely _do not_ like you like that, okay? Please don't hate me"

That whole speech probably took about fifteen seconds to be said, but Lo still thought it took to long as she sat their and lied straight to Broseph's face. But it was better this way. She couldn't stand him possibly hating her.

Broseph just sat there, his face hadn't even changed throughout the whole speech. Lo couldn't even tell what emotions he was feeling.

"Broseph?" she asked gently.

It was just at that instant that the two heard a crash come from the front door banging open, and the resounding footsteps march their way through the living room and into the kitchen.

"Oh my GOD, you would _not _believe the night we have had!" Fin spoke to no one in particular as she flopped down on the chair next to Lo, her hair sticking up at all sorts of odd angles , and as she tried to smooth it into place, sand fell out from it onto the table.

Reef had made a bee-line for the refrigerator before he quickly spotted the cocoa pops sitting on the counter "Oooh! Its just like a chocolate milkshake, only crunchy!" he yelped as he grabbed a couple of bowls.

"Aw, you got one for me!" Fin smiled as Reef was about to sit down next to her. Reef looked down at the two bowls in his hand "Pfft, as if, these are mine" Needless to say he was death glared into giving it up.

"Ew, cocoa pops?" Kelly snided as she walked into the kitchen, towelling off her hair " I cant believe you guys eat that sugary junk"

"Did someone say cocoa pops!" Everyone heard snack shack's overexcited voice yell as they then heard him bounding down into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl.

"Hey, I was gonna have that!" Kelly yelled.

"You just said you didn't like them" Reef pointed out.

"...didn't mean I wouldn't have some. I'm still hungry"

"Morning everyone. Hey, who brought the cocoa puffs?" Johnny said as he too entered the crowding room.

As the kitchen suddenly filled itself with hungry, happy, arguing people, Lo and Broseph were still sitting there, only looking at eachother. Lo looked worriedly at Broseph, he still hadn't replied to anything she said. Was he mad? Relieved?

Did he forgive her? She needed to know. Then all he did was give a small, stiff smile and an understanding nod from across the table.

"I'm gonna go, you know, get to work early" he didn't even wait to hear a response as he walked straight past Lo and out the front door, not saying a goodbye to anyone else. Lo whipped around in her chair to watch him go. She didn't know what to make of _that_ reaction...

But before she even had a chance to think about it another eruption of noise came from the oblivious crowd in the kitchen.

"Work? Now?" Reef asked, on his second bowl of cereal. "But we don't start till midday on Sundays?"

"Yeah, well change of plans, were starting at seven thirty instead today"

Reef and Fins eyes widened "What! Are you joking! Why!" Fin stood up, panicked. This had to be a sick joke Kelly was playing.

Just then, Emma reappeared from upstairs, ready in her wench uniform, glad that she'd heard about the work fiasco from Ripper last night as she caught sight of Fin and Reef. "Oh my god, what happened to you two-"

"We'll explain later!" Fin shushed her and turned back to Kelly.

"Ugh, I don't know why, Bummer just called the staff house last night when you guys were out. He didn't say why" Kelly said impatiently.

The two groms looked desperately towards snack shack and johnny, they both nodded gravely "Its true, and we don't know why either" Johnny checked his watch, already fully dressed in wok uniform by the way, as were Kelly and Snack shack. "And you guys better hurry, It's already twenty past seven right now sooo were gonna get going...and we sincerely hope you don't get fired" he said with a smile and a thumbs up. Revenge for not being invited last night, ay Johnny?

"Bye" Kelly said, trying not to sound too happy as she watched Fin and Reef both race towards the stairs frantically, knocking over kithcen chairs and bowls of cereal in their haste.

"I call dibs on the first shower!"

"Or we could save time and just take it togeth-OW! Fin, don't push me down the stairs!"

Lord help them.

Before he disappeared out the front door with the rest of the group, Johnny noticed Lo still sitting at the table, head resting on folded arms.

"Ugh, Lo? You did hear me right?"

Lo grunted.

"...I said you only have ten minutes to get ready and _be_ at work-"

"Yeah, I heard!" Lo snapped, raising her head and glaring at Johnny. The same death glare she gave Emma earlier on the stairs. "I' don't care! I am _not _going and they cant make me!" She spat out like a spoiled brat having a tantrum...which is kind of what she was anyway so it wasn't exactly unusual behaviour.

Anyway, it got the message across "Oookay then.." Johnny said, slowly backing out and closing the door, not wanting to get involved. Lo sat there in the now empty staff house kitchen, her head throbbing and her heart not doing much better. She didnt care if she got in trouble, she already felt like shit anyway. Time to go back to bed.

As she stumbled back up the stairs, past the bathroom (Where Reef could be seen banging on the door as you could hear the water from the shower running"Hurry up! Geez, you only have two legs, how long does it take to shave 'em!") and back into the bedroom, where she flopped back down onto her mattress and pulled up the covers. Okay, lets just sleep this off Lo, the headache and...everything else.

Conveniently, her phone began to go off. The happy little tune that played whenever Lo received a text.

Right now Lo wanted to kill that happy little tune. It isn't even possible to cause injury to an electronic sound, but goddamnit Lo would have done her best. She stuck out her arm from under the covers and reached blindly for her phone on the bedside counter, where she always left it. Clasping it safely in her hand, she flipped the phone open. Lo pulled a face.

...It was a message.

…...from Tammy...

What was Brittany's little lap dog doing texting her at this hour? Wait, let me rephrase that, what was Brittanys little lap dog doing texting her _at all._ Lo new Brittany, she wouldn't want any of her little harpy-wannabe group even making eye contact with her, no texting had probably been made into a mandatory rule or something.

Lo opened the message out of curiosity.

A picture flashed up onto the screen. Lo pulled another, even more confused, face from before. There wasn't even any actual message, just this grainy cell-phone picture. Then Lo actually looked at it properly. She could make out two people in the picture, a guys back was facing her, no shirt on she might add, and what was clearly a girl being held in his arms. Lo quickly recognised the background as well. It had been years but Brittany's room hadn't changed much. So what? Had Brittany had her friend take a picture of her and some random dude making out or wha-

Lo cut off her own train of thought as she noticed something. The girl in the picture wasn't blonde like Brittany was, in fact when Lo looked closer...she was a read head.

Lo sat up straight in her bed, her head still throbbing.

She recognised the boy now. Ty.

And she could recognise her green dress anywhere.

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN Emma and Ty are busted! But why was Tammy the one sending the pic? You'd think Brittany would want the pleasure, no? Either way, Lo is not going to be happy...and on that note, is Broseph happy at all? SIGH, so many misunderstandings. And I bet Reef and Fin will be feeling pretty stupid too...and what's with the resort opening so early this sunday? Is something else going on? **

**Also, any if you guys Winx club fans? Check out my page for the description of my new story that I've already started writing : D. It's not up yet, due to being a silly and not letting us all upload our new stories...**

**Please leave a review, the next one will be my 100th! I NEVER thought I would ever get that many hahaha. I remember when I started I was hoping to get to 20 : p. You guys are SO awesome for reading my story, I legit love you all for it!**


	13. Oh, right, you'r a slut

**Hey guys, you know the drill, I'm going to start listing all the reasons the new chapter is so late and why I haven't had time to update and yadda yadda yadda. TAFE has started again, projects and classes aplenty, I now have a new job taking up a lot of free time now as well, I also have a lot of deviant art commissions to get done and I have a couple other stories I'm working on now...so yeah. Nothing that new. BUT I have made a big, executive decision on how I will be writing this story from now on.**

**Chapters will now be shorter. I think I'ts a good idea to post new chapters, even if they are quite short, because I am getting them written so slowly. It's taking me weeks to get about 6 pages done when before I've been aiming for about ten for a decent chapter. So I think it's better to update more often, even if they are shorter, because instead of having this chapter now for example, you would have to wait another few weeks. Please tell me what you think about this change, because I can change it back if you don't think its a good idea and would rather keep waiting longer just too see long chapters. Thankyou, and I hope you enjoy reading : )**

Reef hopped up and down on his feet impatiently on the landing, his uniform clutched in his tightly folded arms.

'c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon..' he chanted in his head, checking his watch every other second. He needed a good twelve minutes to fix his hair into excellence on a usual day. Due to them being late, this would have to be cut down to a measly five minutes at best, and at the rate Fin was going, he'd be lucky if he managed a minute and a half. Surf instructors _need_ to look good, that's like a rule of being a surf instructor, didn't she understand that? I mean it's not like maids need to look pretty or anything, just look at Rosie.

"Oh my god FINALLY!" Reef exclaimed loudly as Fin opened the bathroom door, steam billowing out behind her and her hair still damp.

"Calm yourself Leslie" Fin smoothed out a couple of wrinkles on her bright yellow cleaning dress. "It's all yours" she said, stepping out of the way.

Before Reef could even take one step towards the bathroom, he felt a hard shove in his side which sent him crashing to the floor.

"OUT OF MY WAY I NEED TO BE SOMEWHERE AND I NEED TO GET READY SO LET ME GO FIRST 'CUZ IT'S MORE IMPORTANT THANKYOU!"

The door slammed behind her, as none other than Lo barged past them both into the bathroom.

Fin and Reef blinked, trying to register what exactly had just happened. Reef was the first to get it. "Hey, wait a minute!" he started yelling at the closed door, as if it was the one he had a problem with "We have around five minutes to be at work or bummer will kick our asses, what do you have to do that's more urge-"

The door suddenly opened a crack, cutting off Reef in mid-sentance. Lo poked her head around, the most ominous glare that the two had ever seen now plastered on her face. Her eyes were practically slits, and her teeth were clenched. She practically hissed at Reef as she talked.

".!"

"...Yes M'am"

The door slammed on the them again.

There was another brief silence, a very scared and offended Reef off to one side, before Fin clicked her tongue and slapped Reef on the back lightly "Well, looks the like the ocean's going to be your shower today, we gotta' move". As the shower started running in the bathroom , the two made their way quickly down the stairs, Reef slamming the door behind him huffily, hoping Lo would hear it.

They both raced down towards the hotel, gasping for breath as they tried casually walking into the lobby, trying to pretend they hadn't just been dashing to be on time.

"Oh-*gasp*-thank-*gasp*-god!" Reef managed to wheeze out "Only seven minutes late-*gasp*. Bummer wont be too made about that right?"

"Hey! You two!"Reefs question had already been answered as Bummer strode towards them, eyes murderous and the heels of his highly polished shoes clacking against the tiled floors. He looked about ready to kill, or worse, give them both strikes. Reef quickly side stepped his way behind Fin. She'd be able to manage him by herself...

"Look, we can explai-"

"Just get to the restaurant _now_" Bummer threw a couple of pirate wench costumes at them (Luckily this included pants for Reef), not even bothering to hear their excuses as he stalked past them both muttering under his breath _"damn ,rich, air heads with too much access to daddy's credit card, shouldn't have to deal with this in the morning.."_

"...I thought Lo was back at the house?"

"Well, I doubt he's talking about_ our _rich air head" Fin said, lightly slapping Reef upside the head for insulting Lo...even though she just called Lo an airhead herself..ah, who cares, she just likes slapping Reef. It's like foreplay for them.

"Then tell me what _is_ going on?" Reef asked impatiently, looking disdainfully down at the uniform he apparently had to wear. "Why the hell are we working at the restaurant? I'm a surf instructor, a skilled athlete, not some French fry serving, ugly pirate costume wearing-"

"Ahem"

Reef and Fin looked up to see Emma behind them as she announced herself. She raised an eyebrow at Reef.

"...but it looks good on _you_ Emma"

The girls just rolled their eyes "But seriously, tell us why we suddenly have restaurant shifts when were not even meant to be working our _normal _jobs today?" Fin asked, arms folded.

Emma sighed "It's Brittany"

"...you going to elaborate on that or..?"

"She's organised to have a special post-party breakfast for all her friends or something" Emma started to explain "Tonnes of people from the party last night are here, well, the ones who aren't still passed out on front of her lawn that is" Emma shrugged.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up...how did she even manage this? The hotel is meant to be _closed _on Sunday mornings! Why is it opening specially for her?" Reef whined.

Emma just shrugged again "I think Bummer said something about her dad being a major investor in the hotel when it started or something, I wasn't really paying attention, but he's a big deal so it makes his daughter a big deal"

"So when she wants the hotel open for breakfast, she gets the hotel open for breakfast?" Fin scrunched up her nose unpleasantly. She could barely convince her own mom to fry up some eggs for her on a Sunday, let alone a whole hotel.

"and she gets a whole heap of extra staff to attend to her needs as well" Emma added humourlessly.

As the three of them headed back towards the restaurant, still complaining, they saw a blur sprinting towards them just in time to move out of the way. "OUT OF MY WAY!" The blur screamed, not even glancing back at them as they pushed their way past, charging straight into the elevator, the doors closing behind them with a soft 'ding'.

"...was that Lo?" Emma asked uncertainly, blinking at the now closed elevator doors."Is she...is she okay?

"Ugh, I don't even know" Fin waved it off "She was like that when we left"

"Probably the cocoa puffs. All the sugars probably gone to her head" Reef nodded.

Emma looked worried "If Bummer catches her not working she's in serious trouble...an I wonder where she's going anyway?"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Lo was strangely calm as she rode that elevator. Maybe it was the softly playing elevator music humming in the background, but she stood there completely still, her fists clenched and her mouth set in a dead straight line. _Yes_, not ten minutes ago she _had_ been throwing shampoo bottles at the wall of the bathroom in a rage, and _yes_, she may have ripped the shower curtain off its hinges ,and _yes_, she might have to explain to Reef just exactly why his rubber ducky no longer had a head...but now? Wasn't even making a peep. It was as if the rage had taken over her body completely and she was now one with the rage. It wasn't making her lash out or yell, it was just smoothly running her brain, her thoughts and her actions.

The elevator finally made its way up to the penthouse suite, and with another soft ding, the doors slid open. Lo stepped out, totally channelling the terminator right now, she slowly turned her head and glared at the front door to her home.

Target. In. Sight.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The Ridgemount houshold was pretty quiet this Sunday morning. Mr Ridgemount was out playing an early game of golf and Mrs Ridgemount had gone out for her pilates class, so it was only there two sons home. George was playing his x-box fullblast on the plasma TV, a loud roar and a splat echoed through the penthouse everytime an alien got shot by a plasma canon. Ty was sitting on his bed, his laptop propped open in front of him, just checking facebook. There were already a tonne of photos up from last night's party. Lo sculling a cruiser. Lo drunk dancing on a table. Lo doing a kegstand. Lo stumbling down a set of stairs...Lo falling in a pool...when had all this happened? He really should keep a closer eye on his sister at parties from now on. Ah well, these precious moments had now been immortalised by the magic of photography. He clicked on a particularly flattering photo of Lo, drenched from head to toe, flashing the peace sign to the camera with her eyes screwed shut and her tongue hanging out. All in close up.

"Aaand I've just found my new desktop wallpaper"

Grinning, Ty clicked to see the next picture. It was him and Emma when they had been sitting down near the pool on the deckchair. Someone must've snapped it and they hadn't noticed. He looked at his own face, smiling widely towards Emma as she had her hand over her mouth, her nose all scrunched up in a strangely cute way, laughing. He'd only really planned to hook up with her, and that plan had gone off without a hitch, but he hadn't exactly expected to actually enjoy talking to her. She was Lo's weird, kind of hot, red headed co-worker, since when did she have great taste in music, awesome kissing skills and a nose that scrunched in a strangely cute way? Ah, don't get carried away Ty, it was only one conversation, she's probably just like every other girl you've hooked up with, lets not get ahead of ourselves...

Ty's train of thought was derailed as he heard his phone vibrate with an incoming text. He reached over and grabbed it off his night stand, flipping it open. Huh, message from Brittany.

_'Good_ _morning !lol Im having a speshul post-party brekfast in tha hotle restarant . U r invited of corse ; p ill save u a seet 3'_

My god, that girl needs a spelling lesson. He checked the time on his laptop. Eh, breakfast didn't sound too bad right now, and maybe Emma would be working and...hey, wait, was the hotel even open this early on Sundays-

_***knock * knock * knock***_

Ty looked up. He thought he heard someone knocking on the front door.

***knock *knock *knock * knock* knock***

Okay, yeah, definitely knocking. He should probably get that.

"GEEEORGEE! GO OPEN THE FRONT DOOR!"

"ASIF,IM JUST ABOUT TO BEAT ZORG THE WAR LORD ON MARS, YOU GET IT!"

"YOU GET IT, OR I TELL MOM ABOUT THE PLAYBOY I KNOW YOU SWIPED FROM THE NEWSAGENCY LAST WEEK"

"...I HATE YOU!"

Ty grinned as he flopped back down onto his bed as the alien-killing sound effects were paused, George muttering under his breath about lame older brothers as he went to open the front door. He was already flipping through more pictures as he heard the door creak open.

"Oh, It's just you. You do realise your still not allowed in her- Um, is anything wrong...you just look kind of mad is all...just saying...what? Ty? Yeah, he's in his room"

Ty was only half listening but as soon as he heard his own name, his ears pricked. Just as he looked up from his laptop he jumped in shock.

"Lo!" he let out in surprise. She was just suddenly standing there, rigid , in the doorway. It wasn't usual for his sister to just show up without announcing her presence either by squealing, yelling or whining. "Um, hey. Whatsu-"

"SLUT!"

"...excuse me?"

"YOU HEARD ME , HOME WRECKER!"

"Lo, do you even know what the definition of a home wrecker is?"

"I KNOW THE DEFINITION OF A WHORE!"

There was a pause.

"...I'TS YOU!"

Ty honestly had no idea what his sister was on about, but these kind of rants weren't exactly unusually. This one was vaguely reminiscent of the time he drew Justin Timberlake a moustache on her signed N*sync poster when she was twelve. He didn't hear the end of that for weeks. Ty rubbed his temples.

"Okay, calm down, what have I done now?" He asked, deadpan, wanting to get this over with.

Lo just thrust her phone in front of his face. Ty had to take a step back to focus on the picture being displayed.

"...Its two people making out?" He said smartly, barely able to see details on the blurry photo. "...Is that Zac Efron? Was he snapped by the paparazzi with a new girlfriend, is _that _why your upset? Ruined your chances?"

"It's not Zac Efron you idiot!" Lo pulled the phone away and whacked Ty hard with her other hand "Its you!" She pointed dramatically before folding her arms "As if you'd mistake yourself for one of the hottest boys in Hollywood, you are so conceited and _so_ delusional...but anyway, back on track, I HATE YOU!"

Ty ran his tongue over his teeth as he took this in. So, him and Emma hadn't just been snapped sitting next to the pool together...

"Okay, okay, first of all-" Ty put up his hands in defence as Lo looked like she was about to burst into more rampant insults "How did you get the picture and _second_ why exactly is this a big deal anyway?"

This was obviously not the right thing to say.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WHY IS THIS A BIG DEAL'?"

Ty let out a yell as he felt Lo's hand slap him hard across the chest, quickly holding up his arms as a barrage of slaps followed, trying to shield himself.

"It's a _big deal_ because, A) She's one of my best friends!"

SLAP

"Because, B) I s_pecifically_ told you she's off limits!"

SLAP

"Because, C) You are a massive, player, jerk, slutty, manwhore...jerk!

Even as he tried to dodge attack after attack of Lo's paddle-like hands as they slapped viciously at him, Ty could still hear a crack in Lo's voice.

"And...and...because, D)..." Lo's slaps got weaker and weaker, and her voice faltered even more. A feeling of dread washed over Ty as he felt it coming.

"...this is exactly what happened with Briiittannnnyyy!" Lo feel down onto Ty's bed, ending her assault, as tears started rolling down her cheeks and she let out a series of loud, childlike, sobs.

Ty stood there awkwardly, rubbing his now very sore arm, looking at his sister wail dramatically. I think he preferred the slapping.

"Ummm, okay, I think you've lost me. How exactly is this anything to do with Brittany?"

"Don't you get it!" Lo yanked her head up to glare at her brother. "This is exactly what happened last time!"

"...still not following"

Lo sighed in frustration "Emma has a massive crush on you just like Bri-"

"Emma has a massive crush on me?"

"QUIET WHEN I AM TALKING!"

Ty backed of and mimed zipping his lip, letting her continue.

"...Emma has a massive crush on you just like Brittany did...and I told her, I _warned_ her, about you...but she didn't listen.. Just like Emma obviously didn't listen either." Lo's frown deepened "and now your going out together and she'll want to spend all her time hanging out with you rather than me, and then I'll get ignored and be all jealous and then she'll start hating me for trying to tell her how much of a jerk you really are and... and... I'll lose another best friend because you just cant seem to keep your hands to yourself!"

Ty tried to take all of this in. Sometimes he wondered how his sisters brain worked, mostly about how she could possibly think that was a rational train of thought.

"I...really don't even know where to begin with this one but, first things first, I only made out with her" Lo's head raised. "Were not going out or anything and secondly-"

"wait, what!" Lo suddenly looked outraged again "So you two aren't secretly seeing each other behind my back, you just felt her up at a party?"

"Well, if you want to be blunt about it.."

"I cannot believe you!"

"Hey, I thought you just made it clear you don't want us to go out together!" Now Ty was getting angry.

"I don't! But I also don't want you to use her like that!" Lo jumped up off the bed.

"I didn't 'use' her, she was all for it, thank you very much!"

"Oh my god, you are such a pig!" She turned to him glaring daggers "So your not planning on asking her out at all?"

Ty faltered "I...uh...not really.." This line want Ty trying to think up a good lie, he really wasn't sure about how he felt.

"Right. That's it." Lo snapped "I'm going to find her and I'm going to try and tell her one last time how big of a jerk you are and I don't care if it breaks her heart, she needs to know!" She headed for the door but Ty tried to cut her off. It was true, he hadn't planned on asking Emma out just yet...but he didn't want the option gone quite yet...for some reason. Either way, he didn't want to be attacked by two girls in one day. Unfortunately, being was small and agile, Lo easily dodge him and darted out of his room while Ty lunged and missed, ending up crashing to the floor.

"GEORGE, TACKLE HER! DONT LET HER LEAVE!"

"GEORGE, LET ME THROUGH AND I WILL BUY YOU AS MANY ISSUES OF PLAYBOY THAT YOU WANT...MAYBE EVEN A HUSTLER IF YOU HELP STOP TY ASWELL!"

and before Ty knew it, his brother had jumped on top of him, sending them both sprawling to the ground as Lo managed to charge out of the penthouse in search of Emma...

**Okay, so I seriously hope people are keeping up with the conflict and the reasons Lo is upset and doesn't want Ty and Emma going out :/ I hope I'm writing this so it makes sense! This kind of why the story's getting harder to write, keeping up with the drama and making sure I'm including everything that needs to be there for future reference, and checking I'm getting my facts right...I created this whole relationship mess and even I cant keep up with it!hahaha.**

**Next chapter, Lo runs into into find Emma to confront her and tell her about Ty's intentions...but ends up having to do it in front of an entire restaurant full of listening ears and most importantly, Brittany herself. What will she think about all this? Has she already seen the photo, or is this something Chelsea and Tammy are keeping to themselves..?**

**Please leave a review, they are like crack to me and I will love you forever.**

**ALSO, CHECK OUT MY NEW STOKED STORY COLLECTION, MILDLY INTERESTING ADVENTURES, FIRST CHAPTER UP! ULTRA EXCITING! IM ASSUMING CAPSLOCK WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO READ IT!**

**ps. (Found out yesterday stoked season 2 will be airing next Monday here in Australia on ABC3, so pumped like you would not believe!)**


	14. Oh right, this is getting serious

**A/N : Yaaay i'm on school break! 3 weeks of nothing! Which is what got this chapter finished! I think this is the hardest chapter I've done so far...I think I changed it over, like, 5 times! I really wanted to get it right because..well...you'll see.**

"Excuse me, waiter boy, do you have any raisin toast?"

"...uuuh..maybe?"

"...well, shouldn't you know?"

"I probably should, hey"

"...so, can I have some raisin toast then?"

"Hey, here's an idea. I'll go get you a packet of raisins, and then some toast, and you can eat them together. Just as good, brah" Broseph smiled down at the less than impressed girl he was taking the order of, and sped away towards the kitchen before she could complain any more. He was not in the mood to deal with this shift. As soon as he entered the kitchen doors, he found the others weren't exactly up to it either.

"Someone out there ordered a crumpet...what the hell is a crumpet?" Reef complained loudly.

"It's some kind of British...bready..thing?look, I don't know!" Fin snapped impatiently. She stood in front of a hissing coffee machine, a mug held in one hand "can someone just help me work this damn thing and- OW!" she shrieked as a part of her hand touched one of the hot pieces of metal.

"Don't worry , they must have some instant in the cupboards somewhere or something" Johnny said quickly, trying to help,but as he opened one of the upper cupboards a tonne of pots and pans tumbled down onto the floor, making everyone wince at the loud crashes and bangs as the pots rolled all over the kitchen.

Emma looked at the end of her nerve "Guys, seriously, stop! Have you ever dealt with kitchen chefs?" she said, worriedly, as she scrambled to pick up some of the run away pots " If they see you messing everything up like this they'll get so ma-"

"WHAT ARE YOU GROMS DOING TO MY KITCHEN!"

Emma dropped the pots as she grabbed Fin by the arm, dragging her back through the doors to the dining room in a flash, Reef, johnny and Broseph following close behind. Just before the doors swung shut they could hear the Kitchen chef giving Gordan Ramsay a run for his money with his colourful choice of wording.

Because of Brittany's special request to have the dining room open for breakfast this Sunday morning, even the chefs were more evil than usual.

All five of them stood there, wishing themselves back to their beds.

"Hey, what do you all think your doing just standing around?"

Of course, wishing got them no where. Kelly practically threw the menu's at their heads as she spoke "You need to snap out of it, you haven't even taken everyone's orders yet! Get down to the end of the table to serve them"

Emma trudged down to the end of the long table that had been set up (She and Broseph had had to drag all the smaller tables together for the 'special request')

and of course, Brittany, Chelsea and Tammy were seated at the very head of the table. Where else. Emma put on her bravest smile.

"Hey guys" she said, trying to sound cheery "Are you ready to order?"

"Uh, I'm still undecided" Brittany whined. "Is there anything on this menu that doesn't contain fat, carbs, sugar or artificial colours or flavourings?" she asked.

"...water?"

"..Ookay then. I'll just get a fruit salad. Got to eat right to look right" she giggled and Emma forced herself to giggle along too, mostly out of fear.

"Ooh, I want waffles! With cream and honey and ice-cream and-" Chelsea stopped mid-way through her gushing when she saw Brittany's face. "...Um, I mean, I want a fruit salad too please" she said meekly, folding her menu down sadly. Tammy of course ordered fruit salad too.

Just as Emma collected all their menu's and was about to walk back to the kitchens, another voice spoke up.

"And a plate of barbecue ribs for me thanks!"

Emma turned around and gaped as someone removed their menu from in front of their face "Lance! What are you doing here?"

"Having breakfast, once someone actually takes my orde-"

"You know what I mean, aren't you supposed to be working like the _rest _of us?" Emma huffed.

Brittany butt into the conversation "Because he is my special guest" she said matter of factly.

"Yeah, what she said"

Emma blanched "So..you guys are friends?"

"Well, that's not exactly what I'd call it-" Brittany started, looking disdainfully at Lance, but she was cut off by him swinging an arm over her shoulders.

"The best of buddies!" he interrupted loudly. He smiled up at Emma while Brittany looked ready to snap the arm draping over her off.

"Urgh, right" Emma stood there awkwardly, not quite knowing what to make of this. "well, your food will be out shortly then.." she trailed of as she excused herself. Emma thought it was weird Brittany knew Lance. She thought it was weirder that Lance would order Barbecue ribs for breakfast...

As soon as she was out of earshot "Arm. Off. Now" Brittany said through clenched teeth.

Lance did as he was told.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Emma swung open the door to the kitchens "hey guys, did any of you know that Brittany and Lance know-"

"No, Reef! Don't put the bacon in the toaster, that's not how you cook it!" Fin yelled , panicked.

"Well you could of told me that sooner Fin!"

"To be honest, I thought it would be obvious to you"

"And how long have you known me!"

"...good point"

"Don't worry, I'll just get it out with this fork!"

"NO! Do you want to get yourself electrocuted?"

"How 'bout a knife then?" Broseph added.

"Did you not JUST hear what I said!" Fin rounded on him " Electrocuted!"

"...a Spoon?"

"TOASTER. UTINSILS. ELECTROCUTION! _How are you not getting this_!"

Emma backed slowly out of the kitchen. Maybe she would come back and tell them later...

Just as Emma was back out on the dining room floor, she turned around and came face to face with Lo, just inches away from her.

"Lo!" she gasped, having been taken by surprise. "How late are you! You were meant to be here, like, half an hour ag-"

"You do realise my brother is a whore, right?" Lo said , flatly.

"...Umm.."

Emma really didn't know what to say to that. It didn't seem to matter though, Lo was keen to say more.

"Emma, be aware that I say this as a friend, you and Ty as a couple would _not_ work"

Emma raised her eyebrows "Excuse me?" she said, in minor disbelief that this conversation was even happening. Not to mention being pretty offended. "Where is this even coming from?"

"Its coming from the fact that I know my brother, and I'm just saying if you two got together, it would be disastrous" Lo shrugged as she said this, sounding so casual. She probably wasn't even aware that she was being completely and utterly rude.

Emma looked as if Lo had just slapped her in the face. "...I...cannot... believe you just said that!"

"What?" Lo blinked "What I say?"

"Oh, I don't know" Emma started, sarcastically, her anger rising "How about just coming completely out of the blue, telling me I shouldn't go out with your brother even thought you know I've liked him for as long as I've worked here!"

Lo threw up her hands in defence "hey,calm down. I'm telling you for your own good!"

"Oh, are you really? And how would you know what's for 'my own good'?" Emma out her hands on her hips. A few of Brittany's breakfast guests turned around in their seats, having overheard the two girls.

"Emma, trust me, just stay away from Ty" Lo said it slowly and deliberately, like she was talking to a small child. That did not sit well with Emma.

"Why are you even bringing this up! And why should I stay away from him? Is it just because he's your brother? Does the idea of me being with your brother annoy you that much?"

"That's not it at all, Emma!" Lo was starting to get just as frustrated at Emma as Emma was getting at her and both girls had started to raise their voices, causing more and more people to take notice of the escalating fight.

"Then what!"

"Well for starters, how well do you even know Ty? How many conversations have you had? How much attention has he showed you, really?" Lo counted off the things on her fingers.

Emma crossed her arms. _How much attention has Ty showed me?_ She thought to herself, thinking back to last night.

"For your information" she started " Ty _has_ shown attention to me. A lot of attention!"

"Oh, please!" Lo rolled her eyes "Just because a guy hooks up with you at a party doesn't mean he 'likes' you Emma!"

Emma blanched "I...i..what..how did you even"

Lo held up her phone displaying the picture "Thanks for telling me about this yourself, by the way.." Lo snipped.

Emma gaped as she looked at the photo "Who took that!" was her first question as she grabbed for the phone, but Lo quickly snatched it back out of her reach.

"Tammy sent it too me!" Lo said, with no hesitation, pointing across the room at the asian girl. An audible gasp was heard across the room. By this point, the entire dining room had gone silent to watch the two girls, and now, all heads turned to the head of the table where Brittany and her two minions sat.

Emma just gaped "I...really?" She kind of didn't believe it "Tammy? Are you sure it wasn't-"

At that moment, Brittany stood up, making all the focus on her. She looked down at her friend as she sat next to her.

"Tammy...is that true? _You _sent that?" she asked calmly, but her voice was cold.

Tammy looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here, trying to glance over at Chelsea, but Chelsea seemed to have decided it would be a good idea to inspect the floor right now. "I...um...well.." she stuttered nervously, everyone looking at her.

"Yes or no, Chelsea" Brittany snapped impatiently.

"Yes!Okay..yeah I sent it..but it was only so-"

Tammy tried to rush her words at a million miles per hour but Brittany held up a hand to shush her "I don't even want to hear it Tammy! I cannot even believe you would do that to poor Emma, what did she ever do to you!"

There was another stiff silence. Emma was just standing there looking confused, Tammy was practically shaking under Brittany's glare, Lance was looking back and forth between all of the feuding girls like it was a pleasant ping pong match and Lo looked like she had just seen a pig fly by.

"wait, wait...wait. Hold up. Are you telling me-" she pointed a finger over at Tammy, addressing her "-that _you_ sent the text" she then waved her finger over at Brittany "-and the she-devil harpy bitch had _nothing_ to do with it?"

Tammy nodded slowly and Brittany was quick on her own defence "Trust me, Lo, Emma, I had _nothing_ to do with that picture being sent. I didn't even know it existed! And seriously, I'm disgusted too" She peered down at her nose at Tammy "That..is a new low"

Lo gaped like shed just seen an alligator stroking a kitten, while riding a surfboard, in the Caribbean sea...and the sea was pink...with bits of jelly floating in it...and...and I dunno, I'm bad with metaphors. Point is, this was really, frikkin, weird! "Ooookay then, lets maybe focus on this mess later" Lo said, trying to block the strange ideas that maybe Brittany was behaving like a decent person out of her head "what's more important _right now_, is that you promise me you'll stay away from Ty" Lo said coldly.

Emma quickly snapped her focus off of Tammy and Brittany and back to Lo, her face turning pink "what?I'm not promising anything! Doesn't that photo prove to you that maybe Ty _is_ interested in me?"

"What it proves to _me_, is that Ty is just a big of a player as he always has been, and your about to become one of the girls he plays then throws away!"

"So, what, it's not even possible that maybe I could be more than that? Geez, don't be _too _quick to assume I'm worthless.."

"Emma, stop being so naive!"

The door to the kitchens creaked open, and four heads poked themselves out. Reef, Fin, Broseph and Johnny had managaed to overhear something going on, even over their kitchen disasters. Even the chef peered out to get a look.

"Well, maybe you should stop being such a bitch!"

Lo gasped. The entire dining room gasped along with her. Reef, Fin, Broseph and Johnny probably gasped the loudest. What the hell had they just walked into!That kind of language was not like Emma at all.

Emma just continued "And really, I don't even know why your getting upset about me liking Ty _now_, especially since you've known about my crush for so long and haven't said anything before!" Emma really was fuming.

Of course, Lo hadn't really taken kindly to being called a bitch either "Well that photo changed things!" she yelled back.

"How!" Emma threw up her hands "How did that make things so different!"

"Because before I didn't think you had a chance!"

Emma looked like she wanted to yell something back but she faltered, her voice stuck in her throat, breathing deeply, red in the face. She just stood back and stared at Lo.

The entire audience of breakfast-bystanders had their mouths open and eyebrows raised. Fins eyes widened, Reef sucked in air through his teeth, Broseph tensed and Johnny clapped a hand over his was a tense silence before Lance let out a low whistle, obviously enjoying this. "That. Was. Harsh" was all he said, and that set the ball rolling. Everyone else started their own furvent whispering.

"_Ohmigawsh, I cannot believe she just said that!"_

" _Waaaay rude..."_

"_As if you would even say that!"_

Lo looked around nervously, only now hating the fact that they were surrounded by all these people. She hadn't meant to say that. It had just slipped out...the heat of the moment...oh god, she really had _not_ meant to say that. She turned back to Emma and winced slightly as she saw the hurt expression on her face.

…...she _reeeeally_ had not meant to say that!

"Emma, I-" but she was cut off.

"No, Lo...It's fine." Emma wasn't yelling any more, but there was a hard edge to her voice "At least I know how you feel now.."

Emma turned her back on everyone, and stormed out.

It was obvious she was crying.

Everyone watched her leave and soon as she disappeared from sight, they all turned back to glare at Lo.

"Uuuum.." Lo started nervously. "So, I should be going after her no-" but as she went to chase after her friend, Brittany stepped out and blocked her path.

"Lo, do you think your the person she wants to see right now?" Brittany said, coldly "I'll go after her" and with that, the blonde flipped her hair over her shoulder and strutted out of the room after Emma instead, not even glancing at Tammy or Chelsea, and leaving Lo with the worst feeling in the pit of her stomach.

There was that tense silence again.

It was only broken by the heavy footfalls and pantings of Ty as he ran into the room, gasping for breath, his hair messed up and his jacket hanging off one shoulder. Everyone turned to look at him as Ty glanced around, standing up straight when he noticed all eyes on him.

"Umm...so, did I miss anything?"

**A/N:and the shit has officially hit the fan! Now you probably get why this was a hard chapter to write..i mean, Emma getting into a fight? Hard to even imagine! But hey, everyone has breaking points.**

**How is Emma and Lo's friendship going to cope with this? Whats with Brittany playing nice? Whats going to happen with Brittany being the one to chase after Lo...and hows Ty going to handle all of this? QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS!**

**Please review, I love you guys giving me feedback about what you liked and didn't like : ) it really helps me and the story! **


	15. Oh right, i need new friends

**A/N: OH good lord do any of you even recognise me in the stoked section?! I have left this story un-updated for far too long...**

**BUT there is a plus side to the big hiatus! Hopefully something that will have made the waiting worth it! I have completely revamped the future plot to this story. **

**Okay, so, this is the first fic I ever started (roughly around two year ago...wow...that's a long time. I didn't realise how long!) and obviously I didnt even know if it would get paid attention to at all or not, and thankfully you guys actually read it! I had an ending in mind from the start, but as I kept writing and developing this story...it hit me...the ending I had planned SUCKED! So, I fretted and worried and freaked out about it until inspiration struck! I wrote down this new idea, developed it more, made it work with the existing plot, and made what I think is a much much better ending. I'm not giving out any spoilers but you will find out at the end of this chapter.**

**So for now I just need to profusely apologise again and again for leaving this so late, but at the same time I'm trying to convince you that sticking with this story is going to be totally worth it!**

Emma stormed out of the hotel lobby, tears in her eyes and her mouth doing that stupid wobbily thing it does whenever your trying not to cry out loud like a complete baby. She madly wiped at her face with the sleeve of her uniform as some guests gave her strange looks as she scurried past them. I suppose it wasn't that normal for a girl in a wench outfit to be power walking down the street bawling. She needed to go somewhere. Anywhere. What's a good sulking place? The staff house? No, too obvious, people would come looking for her, and right now she'd rather be left alone. Anywhere around the hotel was out too, the realisation that she was still supposed to be on shift just hit Emma and I don't think that 'severe emotional distress' would really cut it as an excuse with Bummer. That's the thing with dramatic exits, it actually helps if you know where your exiting too...

"Emma!"

Just as Emma was resigning herself to go and have a good cry in the hotel public toilets, she whipped around to hear her name being called. For a very brief second she'd hoped it was Lo coming to apologise to her, or maybe Fin just to give her a hug, she never expected it to be-

"Brittany!" Emma said out loud, more to herself than anyone, in surprise. Brittany was tottering along on a pair of sparkly pink Louboutins, her hair bouncing as she hurried after Emma. She was also getting stared at, but unlike Emma, it wasn't because she looked like a total saddo, and more because she looked totally fabulous..

"Oh, Emma! I'm so glad I caught up with you!" and before Emma knew what was happening the blonde had stopped in front of her and thrown her arms out for a hug. Emma awkwardly let herself be enveloped by the harpies outstretched arms.

"ummmm" Emma stopped being overwhelmed with self pity for a second and started being really weirded out. "Hiii" she said slowly and un-surely.

"Oh my god, you poor thing!" Britanny started, pulling back from Emma and giving her a look over with sympathetic eyes. And then she said the one thing that no trying-to-not-cry-in-front-of-someone girl simply cannot hear "Are you okay?"

Emma's lip trembled before she let out a great, big, pathetic sob. "No!" she managed to choke out before the tears started free-falling down her face.

"Oh, come here. There there" Brittany pulled Emma back into the hug and gave her a few comforting pats on the back "That must've been awful for you to hear back in the dining room"

"It was!" Emma wailed between sobs.

"I cannot believe Lo actually said that to you!"

"I know!"

"That is _not_ something a friend does"

"Totally!"

"I mean of course you have a chance!"

"I know I probably don't, but it was just way harsh to hear it from her- and wait a minute, what?" Emma suddenly pulled her head up and stared Brittany in the face. Had she heard right?

"...Emma, you okay?" Brittany looked concerned as Emma stared bug-eyed at her.

Emma tried to snap out of it "I, uh, did you just...did you just say you think I have a chance?"

Brittany just giggled in an annoyingly falsetto way "Of course, silly! I saw the photo Lo showed everyone in the dining room, Ty's obviously way into you! Not to mention your a total hottie, and his type"

Emma tried to blink away some of her tears and sniff away some stray mucus from her nose. At this point in time, she had a hard time believing she was a total hottie...but still, there was something about an actual hot girl telling you were hot too.

"What do you mean, I'm his type? How would you know?"

"Oh, me and Ty have been friends for aaaages at school, trust me, I know when he likes a girl" Brittany smiled at her.

Emma tried smiling back, even if she still felt a little miserable "Oh. So..what is my type then? What in particular does he liked about me?"

Brittany waved her hand around in the air "Oh,yeah..like...your just pretty...type-ish, you know and...yeah." Brittany paused for a brief second while Emma just managed to look confused, before grabbing the red head tightly by the arm "OH MY GOD! You know what'll cheer you up? Shopping! Yeah, yeah, lets go shopping, whoo!" she squealed excitedly "come on, come on, come on! "

Emma didn't even have any chance to argue or even voice any kind of opinion on the matter before Brittany was already pulling her down the street. That girl was pretty fast in heels. As Emma struggled to keep up with the blondes pace, a question popped into her head.

"Hey, um, Brittany?" Emma felt the need to ask for some sort of permission to speak around this girl. Brittany had that effect on a lot of people.

"Yah-huh" she quipped, giving the go ahead for whatever Emma had to say.

"Just now you said you saw the photo of me and Ty...you know, On Lo's phone, well you said you saw it and I was just thinking...you were kind if far away to be able to see it, plus it was pretty blurry to begin with"

Brittany was silent for a second, her lips stretched in a tight smile "...well, yeah. I didn't so much _see_ it as...I heard Lo _describe_ what was in it...I just have a really good imagination and it painted a reeeally good _mental_ image for me" she finished, flashing a very toothy smile.

Emma looked doubtfully at her.

"But like I said" Brittany rambled very quickly "Never seen that picture before, never even knew Tammy took it! Okay, enough questions, we need to get your mind off this topic. Mall time!"

"But-"

"_Mall time!"_

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"- and then _that's_ when she said that she didn't think Emma had a chance with you, and then she was all crying and stuff, and everyone was like 'what the hell', and then she left and yeah. That's were where up too right now." Reef explained very non-chalantly to a rather concerned looking Ty.

"Well..Shit" Ty said, summing up the situation pretty nicely.

The dining room had cleared out pretty fast after the girls blow out. All Brittany's friends didn't see any point in staying now that Brittany herself had left, besides a few hanger on still eating their free food at one end of the table. But all the groms, Kelly and Lance had gathered around to talk about what had just gone down, and to fill in Ty.

"Yeah" Fin nodded "Emma looked so cut" and she gave a bit of a scathing glare to where Lo was standing. Everyone else turned to look at her too.

Lo crossed her arms defensively "What? So I'm just the total bad guy?"

"Yes" Everyone chorused in unison.

Lo scoffed "Oh come on, even Kelly? You're judging me too? Please, you have to be the biggest Bitch working here!"

"Hey, even I have standards"

"C'mon, Lo, even you have to admit that was pretty below the belt saying that stuff about her and Ty" Johnny tried to reason with her "I mean, you _do_ know how much she likes him" He didn't exactly look happy saying that, but he knew this situation wasn't about him.

Lo felt about two inches tall under her friends glares, like she was being told off in kindergarten or something "Yeah, well, it just kind of came out all wrong...It's not like I wanted her to be upset!"

"Then what did you want to happen?" Fin pressed her. "What where you trying to accomplish?"

Lo suddenly glared at her brother "I just wanted her to come to her senses and realise that this jerk is just using her, and has _no_ intention of ever making her his girlfriend!"

Then all eyes turned to Ty and he shifted uncomfortably. He let out a nervous laugh "Ah, come on Lo, why would you say that?"

"Oh, I dunno, just taking a look back on your previous track record. Remember that girl Sally awhile back, she was completely smitten with you, and did you end up asking her out? Oh, wait, no you didn't, you left her heartbroken. Aaand there was Molly, from school, oh and her best friend Rochelle and then that transfer student Bridgette, who didn't speak a word of English by the way, and-"

"Ooookay, haha, I think you've said enough there" Ty smiled awkwardly as all eyes were still on him.

Lo managed to look quite smug "I'm just looking out for my friends best interests, are you doing the same, Ty?"

Johnny looked at Ty, with concern in his eyes "Yeah, man. Your not gonna' treat Emma like those other girls, are you?"

"You want to ask her out, right?" Reef asked.

Ty suddenly felt like he was under one of those spotlights in an interrogation room, like on C.S.I. His motives were being questioned. They were trying to see if he was guilty or not. Okay. Yeah. Maybe he had _just_ wanted to hook up with Emma, but he would've let her down gently! But now all this shit had happened, Lo had made everything complicated, and now he knew just how much Emma apparently liked him...he couldn't just back away from this un-scathed now, this wasn't as simple as it was with so many other girls. This whole situation was getting messy...

"Ummmm.." Ty stalled for time as he felt all eyes on him, waiting for an answer. He couldn't just say no, these were the girls best friends! But if he said yes, he'd...he'd be in a relationship. A _proper_ one. Okay, Emma was pretty cool and all and pretty...but did he know her enough to actually have a relationship? He didn't want to enter one of those until he was absolutely one hundred percent sure about it...and right now he wasn't! He couldn't make this kind of important decision under this pressure, but right now everyone was staring him in the face expecting him to make one!

So for now, he made the decision that was most likely _not_ to get him beat up by anybody.

"...of _course_ I'm going to ask Emma out!"

He saw the others nods of approval while Lo's jaw dropped. "But you cant!' she shrieked.

Ty could feel a headache coming on.

"and why shouldn't he?" Fin scolded her friend "I thought you were pissed at him because you thought he wouldn't ask out Emma, and now he's going to! Isn't this what you wanted, you know, looking out for your friends best interests?"

"Yeah, but he's lying! I know it!"

"Ugh, your just being so unreasonable about this whole thing! Ty and Emma can do what they want" Fin argued.

"It's starting to look like the only thing you care about is keeping Emma and Ty as far away from each other as possible" Johnny added.

"Yes! That's exactly what I want. See, Johnny gets it!" Lo smiled exasperatedly.

"Um, that's not what I meant-"

Ty had already begun massaging his temples "Look, Lo, you just need to but out of all of this. Just mind your business!"

Lo shut herself up. Everyone else didn't say anything,silently agreeing with her brother. She felt momentarily hurt that absolutly no one was trying to see her side, but hey, since when does a ridgemount spend longer than ten seconds feeling sorry for themselves?

"Well then...fine! See if I care! Let him ask her out, let him break her heart, It's pretty obvious that that's what's going to happen! I tried to stop it, but if none of you care then that's just fiiine with me, I'm out bitches!" she yelled behind her as she strutted away out of the lobby.

The others all exchanged glances.

"...so...two dramatic storm outs in one day, huh? Has to be some sort of record"

"Shut up Reef" Fin said flatly, sounding really tired all of a sudden.

"Hey!" Everyone jumped as a very familiar shout filled the dining room "What are all you slackers doing just standing around? Do I pay you to chat?" Bummer stood, glaring, with his hands on his hips. "Everyone get back to work!...and where are Emma and Lo?"

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Lo stormed along the footpath with a sick feeling of anger, guilt and frustration.

Anger, because she _knew_ her brother was lying. She could always tell! He does that weirdly big smile where his top and bottoms sets of teeth don't touch each other. Its both creepy and total give-away. What made her even angrier is that they fell for it! They all congratulated him and wished him luck, they don't have a clue.

Guilt, because she really really can't stress enough that she did not mean to upset Emma...the girl was her friend! Okay, maybe she didn't say what she meant to say in a very comforting fashion, but this is a case of emergency! She needs to get Emma away from Ty as fast as she can, there was no time to be nice about it...still, the image of Emma tearing up over _her_ words refused to get out of her head...

and finally, frustration...well, about everything! The last twenty four hours in general had been frustrating! She was frustrated about life being so frustrating! The party, the photo, Ty and Emma, ...that thing with Broseph...

Earlier I mentioned how when most people storm out in a dramatic fashion, they rarely know where there going. Lo was one of those people too. She had no clue where she was angrily power walking too, and as her head was turning with the aforementioned feelings of anger, guilt and frustration, it actually came as a sort of surprise as she suddenly seemed to have end up on the edge of the beach.

As she slumped down onto the soft white sand, her shoulders drooping and a very firm pout in place, she couldn't help but feel a little upset for herself that nobody had come running out after her.

Okay, maybe they didn't buy the 'looking out for her best intentions story' that wasn't exactly Lo's real motive...her real reasons were a lot more selfish.

She just didn't wan't to lose another best friend. She didn't want Emma to turn into another Brittany.

Now when Lo looked back on the situation, maybe she had handled this badly. Yes, her brother had been a jerk to girls in the past, yes he'd dated Brittany and the girl had ended up becoming obsessed and forgetting about Lo and there friendship had come to a pretty nasty end over him. But would that have really happened with Emma? If she had just left the two alone, worst scenario was Emma got dumped and then Lo would get to swoop in and pick her up out of her misery like a good friend would and then they could both get on with their lives and make up insulting new nicknames for Ty all day long. You know, like a normal breakup. It would suck that Emma got her heartbroken but she would have gotten over it, and their friendship would stay in tact. But now, either scenario sucked for Lo after all those things she said...if Ty and Emma ended up dating for ages or for a week, it still wouldn't change the fact that Lo acted like a complete bitch.

She'd tried to save her friendship by attempting to keep Ty away from Emma, but now it looked like she'd done the exact opposite. As Lo sat there, she realised something. Apparently a Ridgemount _can_ feel sorry for themselves for more than ten seconds..

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"Okay, dudes, you _cannot _let me go after her under any circumstances! None! I cannot leave this spot" Broseph said sternly, a look of pure concentration and resolve on his face.

"Ummm, okay" Johnny raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything else.

"Can do" Reef nodded as he stuffed his face with the front desks complimentary mints. His current record was forty six.

"Mmmkay" Ty agreed.

After a good lecture over the importance of capable employees Bummer had so lovingly given them all, the boys were all back to hanging around the front desk. Of course, it was a sunday morning, so even if Bummer wanted them to work, it wasn't as if they had a lot to do. So Johnny was behind the front desk playing solitaire on the computer, Reef was still shovelling in those mints and Ty was just chilling because...someone to talk too?

"No, seriously guys, I cannot leave this desk . Don't let me chase after her, don't let me go check if she's okay, don't even let me text her! Promise me Bro's!"

Reef and Ty exchanged glances.

"Dude, why so serious?" Ty laughed.

"Just promise, bro!"

"Okay, okay, we promise!" Reef threw up his hands.

"Can we ask _why_ you're not allowed to go after Lo? Besides the reason that if Bummer catches you, you'll get god knows how many strikes" Johnny asked.

"I just...reasons"

"...Like?" Ty pressed.

"Weeell" Broseph said, voice strained, feeling very uncomfortable "It's just...awkward at the moment because-"

But he was interrupted by a beeping sound.

"Ah, sorry, that's me" Ty said, grabbing his phone from his jeans pocket. "Back in a sec" .He wandered off to take the call.

As soon as he was off and talking on the other side of the lobby, Johnny and Reef turned back to Broseph. "So you were saying?"

Broseph slumped down on the counter "I dunno man, like I said, It's awkward. Last night, when I was trying to get Lo into bed-No, not like that Johnny, don't pull that face- Well...she said she really liked me-"

Reef spat a glob full of half eaten mints into his hand so he could speak "YES! Way to go man, that's awesome!" Reef yelled excitedly, raising his hand for a high five. Then he remebered it was covered in minty fresh spit, so he lowered it again quickly. Then again it's not like a high five was actually in order.

"-and then she took it back, this morning, at breakfast"

"...oh"

"Harsh" Johhny nodded solemnly.

"Sooo, ...are you mad at her and that's why you don't want to go after her?" Reef asked.

"Nah, It's not that man. There's just no point in _literally _chasing after her now she's made it clear I'm only a friend"

The other two boys just gave grim nods. The boys all settled back into silence as Broseph moped on the counter. That is Until about ten seconds later...

"Ah dude, who am I kidding!** I'm coming Lo**!" Broseph yelled determinedly as he pulled himself up and made a running dash for the door. Because hey, I mean how many boys have that much self control when it comes to the girl of their affections?

Fortunately Reef was fast enough to react before Broseph made it that far"No! You cant do this to yourself man!" he yelled as he spear tackled his friend to the ground, sending both boys sprawling out onto the hard marble floor with a sickening thud.

"Aw, come on!" Broseph wheezed, the air knocked out of his lungs as he tried to get up, but Reef had a firm grip around his legs.

"You said we couldn't let you go after her" Johnny called from behind the front desk "Don't let him go Reef!"

"This is for your own good, bro!" Reef said determinedly as he wrapped his arms tighter.

"I take it back, I take it back!"

As the two boys continued to struggle with each other on the floor, Ty had wandered back over from his phone conversation looking very confused for about the second time in the last hour.

"Uuuum okay, I seem to be missing a lot today so I don't know what this-" Ty said, gesturing to Broseph and Reef as they engaged in what looked like an intoxicated bar room brawl "-is all about, but I just got a call and I have to go soo..."

"Yeah, that's cool man" Johnny cut him off "every things under control here"

" "

"NEVER! I CARE TOO MUCH TO LET YOU GO!"

"...okay then, I'll leave you all to it.." and with that he gingerly stepped around the two groms and made a hasty dash for the door. Frankly, he didn't think he _wanted_ to know what that was all about.

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This was weird.

Really weird.

Monumentally weird even.

At this point in time all Emma could do was sit there and wonder on just how weird the last 24 hours of her life have been. A massive party, Her first sips of Alcohol, kissing the boys of her dreams, riding home in a whale bus at 2 in the morning, the biggest fight she'd ever had with on of her best friends and now? Well now she was sitting at a bus stop in a wench pirate outfit while Brittany, Evil Harpy, Queen Bee, Blonde Bimbo She-devil (or whatever you wanted to call her) was standing a few feet away making phone calls.

Yeah, life was weird right now.

"Okaaay, sorry about that" Brittany chirped as she strutted back over to Emma, snapping her pink cellphone shut "Just had to make a few calls"

Emma nodded. It was like she was in state of shock. Was she really with this girl right now? Was she really going shopping with her?

Brittany looked down her nose at the bus's waiting bench "Ew, do people really expect us to sit on these?" Emma just looked her at her, indicating that_ she_ was at least..

"...Well what I meant was, do people really expect _me_ to sit down in my designer jeans. I mean its no harm if you get _that_ dirty" Brittany pointed a manicured nail up and down at Emma's uniform "No offence!"

"No offence taken" Emma said, feeling quite offended as the bus rolled up beside them. Brittany rummaged around in what was no doubt a very expensive purse before pulling out a couple of fifty dollar notes and waving them at the driver as the automatic doors slid open.

"Is this enough to get two tickets to the paradise mall?"

"Aaaah the mall" Brittany sighed with a dreamy expression on her face as the two girls walked through the automatic sliding doors into the shiny, well-air conditioned, shrine to capitalism that is the mall. "The rustle of shopping bags, the smell of credit cards, the thrill of hunting for the latest pair of on trend shoes. I love it all! Don't you Emma?"

"Uuuh..I guess?"

Emma liked shopping just as much as the next girl, but Brittany seemed to like shopping on a whole other level...Emma thought she saw the girls pupils dilate a little. Plus did credit cards even have a smell?

"And oh look, there are the girls!" Brittany said, pointing over to where an ornamental fountain sat in the middle of the mall with a group of four girls standing around it.

"Girls? What girls?" Emma asked but Brittany had already tottered over to them to begin a barrage of air kisses and hugs.

Oh Emma could not be doing this, was it too late to run?

"Emma! Over here, come meet my friends!"

If she kicked off her work shoes and bolted it back out the door she could probably still get back on that bus. Still not too late to run

"Okay, so quick introductions. Guys, this is Emma-" Brittany said, parading an awkward looking Emma in front of the line up of girls

Ok. Too late.

" And Emma, this is Becky-" She started , pointing to a very short girl wearing way too much eye make-up

"-This is Brook-" A sulky faced thing who's hair looked way too over processed.

"-This is Bella-" A girls who's teeth seemed even whiter than Brittanys.

"-and that's Bianca" Brittany finished off, pointing to the last girl in the row who, as much as Emma felt mean for thinking it, had a pretty obvious weight problem.

Wait, back up a second. Did...did all of these girls names start with a B? But then again was it so out of the realms of possibility that Brittany would coordinate her friends by name like she coordinated her shoes with her nail polish?

"Uh, Hi" was all Emma managed to squeeze out while all four sets of eyes were aimed at her. There was a very awkward pause where Emma could feel them looking her up and down, none of them looking particularly thrilled to see her. Eventually..

"Hi"

"Hey"

"Hm"

"Hi.."

...An enthusiastic response.

"- So then I told the shop assistant, if he didn't get me the exact same Jimmy choo pumps Beyonce was wearing at the MTV awards , I'd call his manager and tell them he was sexually harassing me and I would get his ass fired"

Becky, Brook, Bella and Bianca, or as Emma had now affectionately named them all collectively, B-force. A tightly nit super team of generic air heads who's powers came from lip gloss, scented nails and starbucks lattes. Their main mission objective: Suck up to Brittany at any given opportunity. They all laughed hysterically as Brittany finished her story.

"Ohmygawd, you're so cool Brittany!" Becky, short B, crooned.

"Serves him right...I cant stand _workers_.." Brook, Sulky B, pulled a face as if just talking about common folk made her feel poorer.

Emma had been trailing around after these girls for around two pointless hours now, wandering in and out of shops and browsing racks, and it took about Emma ten minutes of those two hours to conclude that all four of these girls were idiots.

Like, beyond idiots.

These were probably the type of girls who _actually_ tried brushing their teeth with a bottle of jacks after that Ke$ha song came out. The kind of girls who actually incorporated the word 'swag' into their vocabulary without a trace of irony. The kind of girls who saw becoming a playmate of the month as a bigger honour than the Nobel peace prize. That is if they happen to even know what a Nobel peace prize is.

"Oh em gee, you guys, I think I'm having a seizure! Oh my god, my eyes are freaking out right now, I cant see straight!"

"Relax Becky, its ok! Your false eyelash just fell off a little bit!"

Yeah. Emma doubted they knew much of anything. She sighed and tried to wish herself away to another place and time as B force rushed in to help re-apply the wayward false lash. While all that was going on, Brittany saw it as a time to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Are you ok?" She asked, looking at Emma worriedly "I know Its been a pretty emotional day for you"

If Emma didn't know better she would have sworn that came out as sincere...But then again, how much did she _really_ know Brittany? She knew what Lo had told her, and at this moment, Emma seemed to need to re-think a lot about Lo...

"I just wanted to bring you here today to cheer you up! You deserve better friends. A friend like me! I go above and beyond for my friends Emma, even when they don't ask me too. I'm just that kind of person" Brittany finished, her hand over her heart, like Emma was an abandoned little puppy she was rescuing from the shelter.

Emma almost didn't comprehend what she was hearing. Brittany. Friend. Hers?...**what**?

"Oooh, you look so stunned!" Brittany gushed, opening her arms wide for a hug as she crushed Emma against her "It's okay girl, you have us now. Your new friends!"

Emma stared past Brittany at B-force, all four girls still fussing around those stupid fake eyelashes. _Her new friends._

Dear god no.

Before Emma could scream, faint or cry (All three things she felt like doing at this given moment) Brittany held her at arms length and started to talk again, completely oblivious to the pain etched into Emma's face.

"You know what'll cheer you up? Actually buying something. We've been at the mall for ages and you haven't even pointed out anything you want. Oh, I know! How about you get a brand new party dress, your very own one!"

"But I don't have any mon-"

"Oh, I'll pay for it silly. Daddy gave me my own platinum card _years_ ago" Brittany waved off excuses.

Emma had to say, the idea of a cool new dress at the expense of someone else _was_ tempting. "But why a party dress?"

Brittany shrugged but a less than completely trustworthy smile crept its way onto her lips "Oh, just you know...It'd be nice...because"

"...Because why?" Emma asked, not liking the look of that smile.

Brittany smiled in that kind of repressed way a child does when they know an exciting secret they cant wait to tell someone because they know its just so damn good and theyre gonna love it.

"Ok, your gonna love me!" Brittany started "So you know how I said that I go above and beyond for my friends?"

What, like five minutes ago? Yeah. Emma happened to remember that...

"You know, even though they don't always ask me too" Brittany's smiled was growing by the second while Emma's was disappearing fast.

"Well, I totally recognise that you need to reinvent yourself, away from those surf losers at the hotel, and now you've found your new group of friends but you need to be seen with us, need to let _everyone_ know who you are. Network. Socialise. Be noticed!"

"And this means?" Emma winced, about 99.879% sure she was not going to like the answer.

"Another party!"

Yep. Could not have liked that answer less. She grimaced and her shoulders slumped as Emma looked at Brittany with a begging look in her eye. "Please, Brittany, the absolute last thing I want to do right now is go to another party! I don't think I want to go to one in the next _year _even! So thankyou, but whatever you've planned to go to...I just don't think I'm up too it. Sorry"

Brittany stepped back and blinked "I...that was not the answer I was expecting"

"I'm reeally, really sorry" Emma said, not sorry at all "But you can still go without me"

Brittany bit her lip "Hm, yeah. About that"

"What?"

"Ummm, I kind of already organised the whole thing. Got the food, decorations, sent out the invites..." She winced and shrugged "You know, as a surprise for you. It's gonna be huge...I thought you'd be excited"

Emma couldn't help it, a small wave of guilt washed over her "Oh my god, you did? Really? A whole other party? Wow, I'ts a pretty big effort to throw just one party at your house, let alone another one straight after! Have you even had time to clean your house from last night?"

Brittany looked even more awkward "Uuuuum about that too" she sucked in air through her teeth and looked apologetically at Emma "It's not _exactly _being held at _my _house..." she trailed off.

Emma Froze. Her panic levels rising.

_No_._ she couldn't have. _

"I honestly thought you wouldn't mind-"

_She has to be joking._

"It's too late now, I've already sent a text out to everyone, called a few people, made the facebook page...you cant cancel on like 350 people"

_Dear lord let this be a horrible nightmare._

"I mean, your boss wont be too mad if there's a party at the staff house right?"

_Is it still too late to run away?_

**A/N: **

**OH**

**NO**

**SHE**

**DIDNT!**

**Oh yes I DID! There is going to be, you read it right, ANOTHER PARTY!**

**I mean thats where all their troubles started, maybe thats just where they need to end?**

**...or, you know, it could all go terribly terribly wrong again.**


End file.
